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Prosocial video game as an intimate partner violence prevention tool among youth: A randomised controlled trial

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journal contribution
posted on 2022-05-26, 10:46 authored by Daniel Boduszek, Agata Debowska, Adele D Jones, Minhua Ma, David Smith, Dominic WillmottDominic Willmott, Ena Trotman Jemmott, Hazel Da Breo, Gillian Kirkman
Evidence demonstrates that exposure to prosocial video games can increase players' prosocial behaviour, prosocial thoughts, and empathic responses. Prosocial gaming has also been used to reduce gender-based violence among young people, but the use of video games to this end as well as evaluations of their effectiveness are rare. The objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a context-specific, prosocial video game, Jesse, in increasing affective and cognitive responsiveness (empathy) towards victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) among children and adolescents (N = 172, age range 9–17 years, M = 12.27, SD = 2.26). A randomised controlled trial was conducted in seven schools in Barbados. Participants were randomly assigned to an experimental (prosocial video game) or control (standard school curriculum) condition. Experimental and control group enrolled 86 participants each. Girls and boys in the experimental condition, but not their counterparts in the control condition, recorded a significant increase in affective responsiveness after intervention. This change was sustained one week after game exposure. No significant effects were recorded for cognitive responsiveness. Findings suggest that Jesse is a promising new IPV prevention tool among girls and boys, which can be used in educational settings.

Funding

European Union (EuropeAid/136243/DD/ACT/Multi – Towards a Future Free from Domestic Violence)

History

School

  • Social Sciences and Humanities

Department

  • Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy

Published in

Computers in Human Behavior

Volume

93

Pages

260 - 266

Publisher

Elsevier BV

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Rights holder

© Elsevier Ltd.

Publisher statement

This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Computers in Human Behaviour and the definitive published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.12.028

Acceptance date

2018-12-16

Publication date

2018-12-17

Copyright date

2018

ISSN

0747-5632

eISSN

1873-7692

Language

  • en

Depositor

Dr Dom Willmott. Deposit date: 21 April 2022