A serious game-based solution to prevent bullying
International Journal of Pervasive Computing and Communications
ISSN: 1742-7371
Article publication date: 6 June 2016
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a Serious Game with the main purpose of inducing attitude changes as a way to prevent bullying, in a target audience of young people between 10 and 12 years old.
Design/methodology/approach
The rationale for prevention is: first, to help victims of these aggressive episodes to acquire or improve competencies in avoiding or dealing with future real bullying situations; and second, to promote empathy toward the victims in bystanders. A back office application complements the game, providing substantial assistance to psychologists while using the game with patients in therapy or in research work.
Findings
Both components, the game and the back office, were evaluated with volunteers. The user study leads the authors to the conclusion that the current version of the game holds good potential in bullying prevention: the young people that played the game in a continuous time span, at the end of this testing process, have expressed improvements in their bullying prevention strategies. The back office application, a distinctive feature of the solution when compared to other similar bullying prevention solutions, was positively assessed by the psychologists who tested it.
Originality/value
The game deals with strong social features, such as number of friends and invitations to social events (e.g. a birthday party), to which young people give much importance. Additionally, it offers a variability of scenarios and consequences of actions, taking into account the user’s performance in the game. The main factors that makes the presented solution stand out in comparison with other similar bullying prevention solutions are mainly the following: It includes a back office application to assist therapists with data management features; the role of the player in the game can be chosen according to his own profile; it is possible to play even outside a therapy session (e.g. at home); and it is a portable solution.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the material support of BioISI R&D unit, UID/MULTI/04046/2013 funded by FCT/MCTES/PIDDAC, Portugal. The authors also thank Joana Branquinho and Catarina Dantas, students of Faculdade de Belas-Artes da Universidade de Lisboa, for their invaluable collaboration in the game’s characters design, and the Directive Board of the Avelar Brotero School, for its support during the evaluation of the serious game.
Citation
Raminhos, C., Cláudio, A.P., Carmo, M.B., Gaspar, A., Carvalhosa, S. and Candeias, M.d.J. (2016), "A serious game-based solution to prevent bullying", International Journal of Pervasive Computing and Communications, Vol. 12 No. 2, pp. 194-215. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPCC-04-2016-0022
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited