This study aims to test the efficacy of the REThink therapeutic online video game. Children and adolescents (N = 150), aged between 10-16 years, will be randomly assigned to one of three groups: 1) REThink group, 2) Rational-Emotive-Behavioral Education (REBE) group and 3) wait-list condition.
Background:The prevalence of emotional disorders in children and adolescents is constantly growing and leads to long-term negative consequences for later functioning. An efficient way to approach emotional disorders in youths is to provide adequate services to them prior to the onset of symptoms. A new strategy for implementing prevention programs in youths is the use of therapeutic games. The aim of this study is to test the effectiveness of the REThink therapeutic online game,in helping children and adolescents, aged between 10-16 years, to develop psychological resilience. Methods: To test the effectiveness of the REThink therapeutic online game, 150 children and adolescents aged between 10-16 years will be included in the study. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of three groups: 1) the online therapeutic game intervention (REThink group), 2) the control condition Rational-Emotive-Behavioral Education (REBE) group and 3) the wait-list condition. Participants in the REThink group will play the seven levels of the game, structured into seven modules. In the REBE group, participants will follow seven REBE lessons, structured based on the strategies practiced in each of the REThink level. Assessment of participants will be made before, at the middle, at the end of the intervention, and at 6 months after the intervention. Results: It is expected that participants in the REThink group will provide significantly better results regarding primary outcomes, namely psychological adjustment and the intensity of emotions. Significant improvements are expected at post-test and follow up for the REThink group regarding secondary outcomes, emotion regulation skills, temperamental variables, anxiety in a stressful situation, problem solving skills, relaxation skills,and alpha asymmetry index, compared to wait-list condition, and similarly to the REBE group. Also, it is expected that REThink efficacy will be related to changes in irrational beliefs, and negative and positive automatic thoughts. In addition, it is expected that the REThink game will register high satisfaction with the intervention. Conclusions: This is randomized controlled trial which aims to analyze the effectiveness of a new therapeutic game developed for children and adolescents will provide important information regarding this promising tool.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
DOUBLE
Enrollment
165
The REThink therapeutic online game has seven levels. Each level has various degrees of complexity, which increase as the player progresses in the game. The scenario of the game was developed based on the REBT model, such that it focuses on: a. identifying the emotional and behavioral reactions; b. identifying cognitive processes; c. identifying the relation between cognitive processes and emotions and behavioral reactions; d. changing irrational cognitions into rational cognitions; e. building problem solving skills; f. building relaxation skills and g. building happiness skills.
In the Rational-Emotive-Behavioral Education (REBE) group participants will follow 7 modules, structured based on the strategies practiced in each of the REThink level.
Babes-Bolyai University, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy
Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Emotional symptoms
Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire - child version (SDQ; Goodman, 1997)
Time frame: 12 months
Depressed mood
The Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire - Revised (EATQ-R; Ellis, 2002)
Time frame: 12 months
Emotion-regulation
The Emotion Regulation Index for Children and Adolescents (ERICA; Biesecker \& Easterbrooks, 2001)
Time frame: 12 months
Temperament
The Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire - Revised (EATQ-R; Ellis, 2002) contains 65 questions in the self-report form and is designed to measure temperamental effortful control, affiliativeness, surgency, and negative affectivity. We will use in the present study only 4 subscales from the original questionnaire: attention, fear, inhibitory control and depressive mood.
Time frame: 12 months
Negative and positive emotions
The Functional and Dysfunctional Child Mood Scales (David \& DiGiuseppe, 2016) is used in the game having included faces of children that appear during the game levels. The scale is new and will be used cautiously since only preliminary data is available concerning its psychometrics.
Time frame: 12 months
Satisfaction with the intervention
Treatment Satisfaction Visual Analogue Scales-TS-VAS (Zecca et al., 2014)
Time frame: 12 months
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