The Grow It! app—longitudinal changes in adolescent well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic: a proof-of-concept study
Adolescent mental health and well-being have been adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this preregistered longitudinal study, we evaluated whether adolescents’ well-being improved after playing the multiplayer serious game app Grow It! During the first lockdown (May–June 2020), 1282 Dutch...
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Published in | European child & adolescent psychiatry Vol. 32; no. 6; pp. 1097 - 1107 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Berlin/Heidelberg
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
01.06.2023
Springer Nature B.V |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Adolescent mental health and well-being have been adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this preregistered longitudinal study, we evaluated whether adolescents’ well-being improved after playing the multiplayer serious game app Grow It! During the first lockdown (May–June 2020), 1282 Dutch adolescents played the Grow It! app (age = 16.67, SD = 3.07, 68% girls). During the second lockdown (December–May 2020 onwards), an independent cohort of 1871 adolescents participated (age = 18.66, SD = 3.70, 81% girls). Adolescents answered online questionnaires regarding affective and cognitive well-being, depressive symptoms, anxiety, and impact of COVID-19 at baseline. Three to six weeks later, the baseline questionnaire was repeated and user experience questions were asked (
N
= 462 and
N
= 733 for the first and second cohort). In both cohorts, affective and cognitive well-being increased after playing the Grow It! app (
t
= − 6.806,
p
< 0.001;
t
= − 6.77,
p
< 0.001;
t
= − 6.12,
p
< 0.001;
t
= − 5.93,
p
< 0.001; Cohen’s
d
range 0.20–0.32). At the individual level, 41–53% of the adolescents increased in their affective or cognitive well-being. Adolescents with higher risk profiles (i.e., more depressive symptoms, lower atmosphere at home, and more COVID-19 impact) improved more strongly in their well-being. Positive user evaluations and app engagement were unrelated to changes in affective and cognitive well-being. This proof-of-concept study tentatively suggests that Grow It! supported adolescents during the pandemic. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 1018-8827 1435-165X 1435-165X |
DOI: | 10.1007/s00787-022-01982-z |