Study protocol for a randomised controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of a serious game targeting interpersonal emotion regulation in early adolescents

Background Adaptive interpersonal emotion regulation (iER) is a vital tool for positive relations. During early adolescence, peer relations become increasingly important, making this age group a relevant target group for interventions promoting positive interactions with each other, yet no evidence-...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current controlled trials in cardiovascular medicine 2021-10, Vol.22 (1), p.741-741, Article 741
Main Authors: Mittmann, Gloria, Zehetmayer, Sonja, Schrank, Beate
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age groups
Boltzmann, Ludwig Eduard (1844-1906)
Child development
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive ability
Communication
Computer & video games
Demographic aspects
Early adolescence
Educational software
Emotion regulation
Emotional regulation
Emotions
Extrinsic emotion regulation
Friendship
Games
Gender differences
Health sciences
Interpersonal emotion regulation
Landsteiner, Karl
Mental health
Methods
Peer relationships
Peers
Psychological aspects
Serious games
Sex differences
Skills
Social aspects
Society
Study Protocol
Teenagers
Youth
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Summary:Background Adaptive interpersonal emotion regulation (iER) is a vital tool for positive relations. During early adolescence, peer relations become increasingly important, making this age group a relevant target group for interventions promoting positive interactions with each other, yet no evidence-based intervention exists for iER and early adolescents specifically. Methods This randomised controlled trial (RCT) aims to test effectiveness and feasibility of a serious game training iER skills in early adolescents by comparing outcomes with a control group playing a game without psychoeducational content in a pre- and post-test design. German- and English-speaking early adolescents (10-14 years) are eligible for participation. IER skills improvement as assessed by a vignette task is the primary outcome and will be analysed with a chi-square test. Secondary outcomes include feasibility and acceptability, emotional competence, personal emotion regulation, gender, and sex. Discussion This RCT will test whether playing a serious game about iER strategies results in an improvement of iER skills and whether the game is feasible and acceptable for early adolescents with the ultimate aim to implement the game in schools and help early adolescents achieve positive peer relationships. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.govNCT04808102, Registered on 19 March 2021 Keywords: Interpersonal emotion regulation, Extrinsic emotion regulation, Serious games, Sex differences, Gender differences, Early adolescence, Preadolescence, Social connectedness, Friendship
ISSN:1745-6215
1745-6215
DOI:10.1186/s13063-021-05706-7