During adolescence there is a sharp increase in mental health issues (e.g. depression). Video games may be used to train skills and knowledge to improve adolescent well-being, as video games engage adolescents and have been shown to train a range of skills. The project aims to examine mechanisms in potentially beneficial commercial video games that are effective in promoting mental health. These mechanisms may then inform the development of video games that specifically aim to promote well-being or target specific mental health issues. Moreover, in this project we look at non-specific factors (e.g. contextualization) that may promote or hinder the effectiveness and/or appeal of mental health games. Finally, insight gained into the screening process used in indicated internalizing psychopathology prevention is integrated into a paper which aims to question and better understand the nature and consequences of selecting youth for depression prevention programs and to stimulate research on more reliable, valid and innovative methods to select youth for indicated prevention.
Can I Play Some More? Promoting Adolescent Well-being Through Engaging Video Games
Commercial video games may offer a cheap and readily available way to help us understand in what way video games can be used to promote adolescent well-being. Excellent targets for this are games that involve social interaction, encourage both positive and negative emotions and are identified by youth themselves as potentially beneficial. By letting youth play several commercial video games in different settings, we can learn how games interact with well-being and motivation in both short and long-term.
Of 15-20 year olds had elevated scores on two depression scales
Played more than 1 hour of the intervention game at home
Of suitcases did not survive transporting project game materials
This project has resulted in several publications available below. Currently, the results of the main Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) are in the process of being published. This RCT tested the effectiveness of Journey (Thatgamecompany, 2012) as indicated depression prevention compared to a control game condition Flower (Thatgamecompany, 2009) and a no-treatment control condition (Dutch Trial Register: NL4873; https://www.trialregister.nl/trial/4873). Additionally, potential action mechanisms for depression prevention using video games were examined.
Before the study could begin 4162 youth aged 15 to 20 years old completed a screening questionnaire. Of these screened youth 10.9% showed subclinically elevated scores without suicidal ideation on two depression scales (CDI ≥ 13, CDI < 30, and PHQ-2 ≥ 2; Kovacs, 2001; Kroenke et al., 2003; Richardson et al., 2010). After many phone calls, 244 participants with elevated depressive symptoms (Mage = 17.11, SDage = 1.76, 66.4% female) were given four weeks to play Journey or Flower or no specific game — following a random allocation to the three conditions. While 95.9% of participants in the game conditions played at least an hour of their game, 75% of the suitcases used to transport the game materials to the participants did not survive this ordeal.
Publications
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The Benefits of Playing Video Games
Granic, I., Lobel, A., & Engels, R. C. (2014). American Psychologist, 69, 66-78.
Author: Isabela Granic
Upload date: 01-17-2014
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Engaging youth in depression prevention: Testing the effectiveness and appeal of applied and commercial video games [Doctoral Dissertation]
M. Poppelaars (2021). Engaging youth in depression prevention: Testing the effectiveness and appeal of applied and commercial video games. Doctoral Thesis. Radboud University.
Author: Marlou Poppelaars
Upload date: 11-26-2021
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Can a commercial video game prevent depression? Null results and whole sample action mechanisms in a randomized controlled trial.
Poppelaars, M., Lichtwarck-Aschoff, A., Otten, R., & Granic, I. (2021). Can a commercial video game prevent depression? Null results and whole sample action mechanisms in a randomized controlled trial. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 575962. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.575962
Author: Marlou Poppelaars
Upload date: 01-12-2021
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The Role of Motivation to Change and Mindsets in a Game Promoted for Mental Health
Wols, A., Poppelaars, M., Lichtwarck-Aschoff, A., & Granic, I. (2020). Entertainment Computing, 100371.
Author: Aniek Wols
Upload date: 07-07-2020
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Explicit Mental Health Messaging Promotes Serious Video Game Selection in Youth with Elevated Mental Health Symptoms
Poppelaars, M., Wols, A., Lichtwarck-Aschoff, A., & Granic, I. (2018). Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01837
Author: Marlou Poppelaars
Upload date: 09-10-2018
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The Impact of Explicit Mental Health Messages in Video Games on Players’ Motivation and Affect
Poppelaars, M., Lichtwarck-Aschoff, A., Kleinjan, M., & Granic, I. (2018). The impact of explicit mental health messages in video games on players’ motivation and affect. Computers in Human Behavior, 83, 16-23. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.01.019
Author: Marlou Poppelaars
Upload date: 07-01-2018
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A Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing Two Cognitive-Behavioral Programs for Adolescent Girls with Subclinical Depression: A School-Based Program (Op Volle Kracht) and a Computerized Program (SPARX)
Poppelaars, M., Tak, Y. R., Lichtwarck-Aschoff, A., Engels, R. C. M. E., Lobel, A., Merry, S. N., Lucassen, M. F. G., & Granic, I. (2016). Behaviour Research and Therapy, 80, 33-42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2016.03.005
Author: Marlou Poppelaars
Upload date: 05-01-2016
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Videospellen: De Positieve Effecten
Granic, I., Lobel, A., Poppelaars, M., & Engels, R. C. M. E. (2015). Kind en Adolescent, 36 (1), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12453-014-0066-8
Author: Marlou Poppelaars
Upload date: 01-22-2015
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Autonomous and Controlled Motivation in a Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing School-based and Computerized Depression Prevention Programs
Poppelaars, M., Tak, Y. R., Lichtwarck-Aschoff, A., Engels, R. C. M. E., Lobel, A., Merry, S. N., Lucassen, M. F. G., & Granic, I. (2014). In Schouten, B., Fedtke, S., Schijven, M., Vosmeer, M. & Gekker, A. (Eds.), Games for Health 2014 (pp. 125-135). Germany: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-07141-7_17
Author: Marlou Poppelaars
Upload date: 10-29-2014
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Randomized Controlled Trial Testing the Effectiveness of a Depression Prevention Program (‘Op Volle Kracht’) Among Adolescent Girls with Elevated Depressive Symptoms
Wijnhoven, L. A. M. W., Creemers, D. H. M., Vermulst, A. A., Scholte, R. H. J., & Engels, R. C. M. E. (2013). Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 1-12.
Author: Lieke Wijnhoven
Upload date: 07-27-2013
Project team
I am a Postdoctoral researcher passionate about internalizing psychopathology prevention and the use of technology and innovation for this purpose while stimulating intrinsic motivation. I love to read, cook and bake everything delicious. Working on finishing my dissertation and Two Dots (Level 3682 and counting).
Post Doctorate at University of Groningen
Professor and Chair of the Developmental Psychopathology department in the Behavioural Science Institute; writer; voracious podcast consumer; mother of two upstanding little gamers
Professor at McMaster's University & Co-founder of PlayNice Interactive
I am not so interested in *whether* certain interventions work but *how* they work. That is, I am mainly focusing on underlying processes and mechanisms of change across diagnostic categories and different treatment modalities. Mother of two wild boys!
Professor of Orthopedagogics at University of Groningen
User Research Analyst at Ubisoft Montréal. My favorite games tell emotionally rich stories and challenge me to think differently
User Research Analyst
Sources
All sources
Poppelaars, M., Tak, Y. R., Lichtwarck-Aschoff, A., Engels, R. C. M. E., Lobel, A., Merry, S. N., Lucassen, M. F. G., & Granic, I. (2014). In Schouten, B., Fedtke, S., Schijven, M., Vosmeer, M. & Gekker, A. (Eds.), Games for Health 2014 (pp. 125-135). Germany: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-07141-7_17
Granic, I., Lobel, A., Poppelaars, M., & Engels, R. C. M. E. (2015). Kind en Adolescent, 36 (1), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12453-014-0066-8
Poppelaars, M., Tak, Y. R., Lichtwarck-Aschoff, A., Engels, R. C. M. E., Lobel, A., Merry, S. N., Lucassen, M. F. G., & Granic, I. (2016). Behaviour Research and Therapy, 80, 33-42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2016.03.005
Poppelaars, M., Wols, A., Lichtwarck-Aschoff, A., & Granic, I. (2018). Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01837
Poppelaars, M., Lichtwarck-Aschoff, A., Kleinjan, M., & Granic, I. (2018). The impact of explicit mental health messages in video games on players’ motivation and affect. Computers in Human Behavior, 83, 16-23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.01.019