A Behavioral Strategy to Nudge Young Adults to Adopt In-Person Counseling: Gamification.

Shengen Piao,Jaewoo Joo

doi:10.3390/bs12020040

Abstract

Mental illness has always been an important issue for young adults. Moreover, initiatives resulting from the outbreak of COVID-19 have had an even greater impact on the mental health of young adults. This study sought to examine the effect of gamification on whether young adults adopt in-person counseling. One hundred twenty young adults (42 males and 78 females) with an average age of 29 years participated in our experiment. In the experiment, a 2 (Gamification: no vs. yes) × 2 (Vividness: low vs. high) between-subjects design was employed. In the “yes” gamification condition, participants decided whether or not to read introductory material about in-person counseling, and also whether or not to adopt in-person counseling in the future. The results of the study show that: (1) gamification increased adoption, (2) participants’ perception of subjective usability of in-person counseling mediated the effect of gamification to adoption, and (3) vividness of presentation moderated subjective usability. Our study demonstrated that gamification nudges young adults to adopt in-person counseling while subjective usability mediates the relationship, and vividness moderates the relationship between gamification and subjective usability. Our findings provide counselors fresh insights into motivating people to access counseling services.

Highlights

According to the World Health Organization, up to 20% of children and adolescents have a mental illness [1]
Our study demonstrated that gamification nudges young adults to adopt in-person counseling while subjective usability mediates the relationship, and vividness moderates the relationship between gamification and subjective usability
The detailed results are as follows: gamification increases the adoption of in-person counseling (H1); gamification increases the perception of the objective usability of in-person counseling (H2a); gamification increases the perception of subjective usability of in-person counseling (H2b); subjective usability increases the adoption of in-person counseling (H3b); the vividness of presentation increases the subjective usability of in-person counseling

Summary

Introduction

According to the World Health Organization, up to 20% of children and adolescents have a mental illness [1]. Half of these illnesses begin before the age of 14, and most cases go undetected and untreated [2]. A form of mental illness, are 25 times more likely to commit suicide than those who are not experiencing depression [5]. Analysis of the suicide rate in high-income countries shows that up to 90% of suicidal cases are related to mental illness. Almost 76% to 85% of people with depression remain untreated in low- and middle-income countries [2,4].

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion