Marlou Poppelaarsonline

Short bio

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).

Top-3 games
  1. Two Dots
  2. Journey
  3. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
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Stars can’t shine without darkness

D H Sidebottem - Fragile Truths

About me

Having recently defended my dissertation entitled Engaging Youth in Depression Prevention: Testing the Effectiveness and Appeal of Applied and Commercial Video Games, I am now looking for my next research adventure. I am a behavioural scientist passionate about internalizing psychopathology intervention, intrinsic motivation, and the use of video games and other technological advancements for this purpose. As a PhD-student and Postdoctoral researcher my projects focused on mechanisms in commercial and applied video games that may promote mental health in adolescents. Having experienced first-hand the limitations of using symptom questionnaires to select youth for prevention programs, I believe that innovative theoretical, methodological and intervention research is needed to lower the disease burden of internalizing mental health disorders and I am excited to contribute to this with my own work.

Projects I’ve worked on

  • Category
    Anxiety | Depression
    Date
    09/06/2020
    Study/Course
    Location

    Can I Play Some More? Promoting Adolescent Well-being Through Engaging Video Games

    About the project

    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.

    view this project

  • Category
    Gaming
    Date
    19/03/2024
    Study/Course
    Location

    Nonspecific Factors in Video Games for Mental Health

    About the project

    More and more games are designed to promote mental health. If these games are found to be effective, it is important to investigate which factors are responsible for the improvements in mental health. Most often, this type of research focuses on the specific clinical techniques that were designed into the game. However, from the clinical literature it is known that, for instance, expectations, motivation, and one’s mindset about the malleability of symptoms play a major role in positive intervention outcomes. In my project I aim to investigate these nonspecific factors and examine how we can manipulate these factors in order to optimize video games for mental health.

    view this project

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Archive


My publications

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • Marlou Poppelaars on Google Scholar

    Developmental Psychopathology Depression Anxiety Prevention Applied Video Games

    Author: Marlou Poppelaars

    Upload date: 06-09-2020

  • Effectiveness of applied and casual games for young people's mental health: A systematic review of randomised controlled studies

    Wols, A., Pingel, M., Lichtwarck-Aschoff, A., & Granic, I. (2024). Effectiveness of applied and casual games for young people's mental health: A systematic review of randomised controlled studies. Clinical Psychology Review, 102396.

    Author: Aniek Wols

    Upload date: 01-30-2024

  • The Effect of Expectations on Experiences and Engagement with an Applied Game for Mental Health

    Wols, A., Hollenstein, T., Lichtwarck-Aschoff, A., & Granic (2021). Games for Health, 10(4), 207-219.

    Author: Aniek Wols

    Upload date: 08-09-2021

Worked together with

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Isabela Granic
Director of GEMH Lab

Professor and Chair of the Developmental Psychopathology department in the Behavioural Science Institute; writer; voracious podcast consumer; mother of two upstanding little gamers

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Professor at McMaster's University & Co-founder of PlayNice Interactive

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Aniek Wols
Researcher at GEMH Lab

I am interested in how and why applied games for mental health work, with a specific focus on the influence of one's mindset, motivation and expectations.

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PhD-Candidate at Radboud University

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Anna Lichtwarck-Aschoff
Collaborator

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!

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Professor of Orthopedagogics at University of Groningen

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Adam Lobel

User Research Analyst at Ubisoft Montréal. My favorite games tell emotionally rich stories and challenge me to think differently

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User Research Analyst

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Marieke van Rooij

Assistant prof. and data geek at the GEMH lab, dynamical modelling, personalisation, wants to put the I back into AI, news junkie, cat lover.

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Assistant Professor

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Rutger Engels

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CEO at Trimbos Institute / Professor Developmental Psychopathology Utrecht University

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Marloes Kleinjan

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Program Head Epidemiology & Research support at Trimbos Institute / Professor Youth Mental Health Promotion Utrecht University

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