Identifying Digital Play Experiences that Support Wellbeing in Middle Childhood and Early Adolescence

• In Event: Contributing factors to digital game efficacy for learning among children and early adolescents

Abstract

There is a growing awareness of the need for schools to include Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) to support students’ wellbeing (e.g., Barnes & Jones, 2022). Several researchers have identified digital games as a potential component of SEL curricula (e.g., Fernandes et al., 2021; Xavier et al., 2022). The current study examined design features of commercial video games that support wellbeing in middle childhood and early adolescence. Grounded in self-determination theory (Ryan & Rigby, 2020) and informed by the UNICEF–RITEC (2022) framework, we examined the following six dimensions of wellbeing: competence, agency/autonomy, relatedness/belonging, curiosity/openness, optimism/positive outlook, and relaxation/reduced stress. Understanding the relation between game play and wellbeing can help inform the integration of digital games into SEL curricula.
Participants (N = 25; aged 7-17 years, mean age 11 years) completed a pre-play survey, and were then observed for two 20-minute play sessions. Each session involved one of following tablet-based games (randomly assigned): Plants vs. Zombies (PvZ, tower defense), Rocket League Sideswipe (RLS, soccer with high-flying cars), World of Goo (WoG, puzzle solving through construction) Angry Birds 2 (AB, puzzle solving through tower destruction), LEGO Builder’s Journey (LBJ, visual pleasing puzzle adventure), LEGO Tower (LT, build and manage a tower for LEGO Minifigures). Game-screen and utterances were recorded for later coding, and wellbeing related behaviors during play (i.e., facial expressions, gestures, postures, and utterances) were documented. Finally, a post-play interview was conducted.
Data came from in-game actions, players’ responses, researchers’ observations, and post-play interviews. Key game events and players’ reactions were coded. Each game was then rated on a 5-point scale based on the experiences it provided that could contribute to the six wellbeing factors. (Table 1.) Interview data was coded to further understanding of how game experiences contributed to wellbeing.
All games contributed somewhat to the wellbeing dimensions, but each had its own strengths. Competence, agency/autonomy, and relatedness/belonging were the most supported, with relaxation being the least. Certain factors were directly affected by gameplay, while others indirectly. For example, actions in the game that resulted in immediate observable effects created a sense of agency and resulted in increased sense of competence. In contrast, optimism and relaxation emerged only after players experienced agency and relatedness. Finally, some developmental differences were observed: WoG had better effects for older children, while LT was better for younger children. This difference appeared to be the result of both level of challenge inherent to the games and game aesthetics.
These results provide initial evidence for the potential of certain types of video game play to positively affect children’s wellbeing. Including games have been found to be particularly effective in SEL programs when paired with more traditional pedagogical technics, such as guided discussion (Zheng et al., 2021). The game profiles provide guidance for what types of games would be appropriate for different SEL topics. Furthermore, the observed developmental differences suggest that the effectiveness of any game depends on an interaction between individual factors and design features of the game.

Authors

• Bruce D Homer, The Graduate Center, CUNY
  Presenting Author

• Yuli Shao, New York University

• Fabian Froehlich, New York University

• Jan L Plass