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How Effective are Serious Games for Promoting Mental Health and Health Behavioral Change in Children and Adolescents? A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

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Abstract

Background

Children and adolescents are major computer and technology gadget users. While serious games hold important promises for promoting health-related behavioral change and mental health among children and adolescents, their efficacy is yet unclear.

Objectives

We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to offer a comprehensive picture on the evidence-based status of serious games for mental health promotion and health-related behavioral change in children and adolescents.

Method

We included 34 clinical and experimental randomized studies investigating the efficacy of serious games on mental health promotion and health-related behavioral change in children and adolescents.

Results

Results showed a small, but significant effect size with very high heterogeneity. Participants’ age, number of sessions, the length of session, and study quality significantly moderated the effect size, with younger participants, fewer and shorter sessions, and lower quality of the study being associated with higher effect sizes. The effect size was not significant for follow-up measurements.

Conclusions

The evidence supporting the use of serious games in children and adolescents for purposes of health promotion is limited. These conclusions must be considered with caution given the bias of publication. We need more adequately conducted studies testing well-specified serious games before we can draw clear conclusions.

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Data Availability

Data is not currently stored in a public repository.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a grant awarded to David Oana Alexandra from the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNCS – UEFISCDI, project number PN-II-PT-PCCA-2013-4-1937.

Funding

This work was supported by a grant awarded to Oana A. David from the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNCS – UEFISCDI [Grant Number PN-II-PT-PCCA-2013-4-1937].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, The International Institute for the Advanced Studies of Psychotherapy and Applied Mental Health, Babeș-Bolyai University, 37 Republicii St., 400015, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Oana Alexandra David, Cristina Costescu, Roxana Cardos & Cristina Mogoaşe

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  1. Oana Alexandra David
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  2. Cristina Costescu
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  3. Roxana Cardos
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  4. Cristina Mogoaşe
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Contributions

We confirm that the manuscript has been read and approved by all named authors and that there are no other persons who satisfied the criteria for authorship but are not listed. We further confirm that the order of authors listed in the manuscript has been approved by all of us. Contributions: The 1st author contributed to the design of the study, coding system, literature search, interpretation of data, and manuscript writing; the 2nd author brought contributions to the literature search, coding, and manuscript writing; the 3rd author brought contributions to the literature search, data coding, and manuscript writing; the 4th author brought contributions to the literature search, data coding, data analysis, interpretation of data, and manuscript writing.

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Correspondence to Oana Alexandra David.

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David, O.A., Costescu, C., Cardos, R. et al. How Effective are Serious Games for Promoting Mental Health and Health Behavioral Change in Children and Adolescents? A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Child Youth Care Forum 49, 817–838 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-020-09566-1

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