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Does Digital Game Play Affect Social/Emotional Child Wellbeing?

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Serious Games (JCSG 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 14309))

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Abstract

Can digital game play enhance child wellbeing? Applying a wellbeing framework that identified six dimensions of wellbeing (competence, agency, relatedness, curiosity, optimism, and reduced stress) we conducted a playtesting study (N = 25) to develop wellbeing profiles for six games. These profiles informed an experimental study in which 8- to 12-year-olds (N = 62) either played tablet-based casual games over an 8-week period (play group) or engaged in other activities (control group) in an afterschool program. We administered the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction Scale (BPNSFS) as pre-test, and the KIDSCREEN-27, a standardized measure of wellbeing, as pre- and post-intervention test. We found that for children with specific psychological needs, the play intervention improved related domains of wellbeing. Results have theoretical and practical implications, including guidance for game designers to add features supporting child wellbeing.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. New York University, New York, NY, 10012, USA

    Jan L. Plass, Meagan Bromley, Fabian Froehlich & Yuli Shao

  2. The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY, 10016, USA

    Bruce D. Homer & Jessica Young

Authors
  1. Jan L. Plass
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  2. Bruce D. Homer
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  3. Meagan Bromley
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  4. Fabian Froehlich
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  5. Yuli Shao
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  6. Jessica Young
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jan L. Plass .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Mads Haahr

  2. University of Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica

    Alberto Rojas-Salazar

  3. TU Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

    Stefan Göbel

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Plass, J.L., Homer, B.D., Bromley, M., Froehlich, F., Shao, Y., Young, J. (2023). Does Digital Game Play Affect Social/Emotional Child Wellbeing?. In: Haahr, M., Rojas-Salazar, A., Göbel, S. (eds) Serious Games. JCSG 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14309. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44751-8_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44751-8_11

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-44750-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-44751-8

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