Hall of Heroes: A Digital Game for Social Skills Training with Young Adolescents

Melissa E Derosier,James M Thomas

doi:10.1155/2019/6981698

Abstract

Traditional social skills training (SST) programs are delivered in person and suffer from significant time, financial, and opportunity barriers that limit their reach and potential benefits for youth. This paper describes the design and preliminary evaluation ofHall of Heroes, a digital game that presents SST through an engaging superhero-themed virtual story world. Participants were randomly assigned to complete the digital game (n = 15) or to a waitlist control condition (n = 14) and were compared on parent-report measures of social emotional functioning. Youth who completedHall of Heroessignificantly improved in their abilities to relate to others (both peers and family members) as well as to accept affection and express emotions with others, compared to youth who did not complete the SST intervention. Further, youth in the treatment condition showed a significantly greater decline in feelings of anxiety, depression, and hopelessness than did youth in the control condition. Both parents and youth reported high levels of engagement in and acceptability of theHall of Heroes. This study adds to the research literature, supporting the potential of a game-based SST platform for effectively helping youth develop prosocial social problem-solving skills.

Highlights

IntroductionThe early adolescent period is a turbulent and stressful one for youth who must adapt and adjust to a myriad of concurrent life changes
Preliminary analyses were conducted using a Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) with condition as the between-subjects factor to determine whether scores on the BERS-2 and the Y-OQ differed at baseline across the two conditions
Given the small sample size, we elected to use an Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) approach in order to control for baseline scores when analyzing intervention effects [45, 46]

Summary

Introduction

The early adolescent period is a turbulent and stressful one for youth who must adapt and adjust to a myriad of concurrent life changes. At the same time as significant physical and cognitive growth is occurring, youth move from the smaller, more protective elementary school setting, with smaller classrooms and strong teacher support, to the larger, more impersonal middle school environment. In late elementary and middle school, academic demands increase considerably with more difficult assignments, higher expectations for independence, and more stringent grading [1, 2]. Concomitant with escalating academic demands, the social environment shifts from smaller, more protective settings to much larger, varied, and competitive social groups [3,4,5,6]

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Results

Conclusion