PlayForward: Elm City Stories. Image Credit play2PREVENT
play2PREVENT Lab Study’s results published early September 2017 in the Journal of Medical Internet Research showed that PlayForward “Serious Game” was effective in improving positive attitudes about sexual health among adolescents
Following my previous post Jesse
Schell On Serious Games @ Serious Play 2013, which
covered PlayForward:
Elm City Stories as a gold medal winner in the Healthcare/Medical
category of the International Serious Play Awards, the Yale
News has recently reported that “video games might
soon have a place in classrooms as tools to help educate adolescents about
public health issues.”
With the value proposition of “harnessing
videogame technology to shape stronger and healthier lives”, seven years ago
Lynn Fiellin MED ’96, founder and director of the play2PREVENT Lab at the Yale Center for Health & Learning Games,
received funding from the National Institutes of Health to study how video
games might effectively combat public health issues among New Haven youth.
Play2PREVENT’s inaugural video game was PlayForward: Elm City Stories. Yale’s p2P
initiative has partnered with Schell Games and Digitalmill to develop the game for the iPad, aimed at preventing
HIV infection among ethnic minority adolescents. PlayForward is a serious role-playing videogame that engages youth
with a variety of challenges and choices in fictional yet realistic life
situations.
Led by Fiellin, the research team recruited
more than 300 students, ages 11 to 14, from afterschool and summer programs in
the New Haven area for the study.
During the one-year study period, the students
were assessed for a range of outcomes, including sexual health attitudes,
knowledge, intention to initiate sex, and sexual activity.
The findings validate the value of the Serious
Game as a tool to engage and educate teens at risk for HIV and other sexually
transmitted infections (STIs).
PlayForward: Elm City Stories. Image Credit play2PREVENT Lab
Here are the excerpts of the article authored by CHLOE GLASS:
“Play2PREVENT first formed
focus groups composed of New Haven teenagers to determine how best to proceed
with the development of PlayForward.
After this initial planning phase, the Lab conducted a 24-month-long study to research the game’s impact on sexual-health attitudes and
behaviors. The study surveyed 333 New Haven teens aged 11 to 14, half of whom
were instructed to play control games, such as Subway Surfer and Angry Birds,
and half of whom were given PlayForward.
The study’s results published early September 2017 in the Journal of Medical Internet
Research showed that PlayForward was effective in improving positive attitudes and
increasing knowledge about sexual health for up to a year after the initial
tests.”
“Over a 12-month period following the initial
tests, participants in the PlayForward group
demonstrated improved attitudes about sexual health and sexual-health knowledge
compared to the control group, according to the study’s findings.”
PlayForward: Elm City Stories. Image Credit play2PREVENT Lab
“Serious Games as digital health interventions
offer the unique opportunity to increase the accessibility and reach of
theory-driven and tested interventions,” Fiellin concluded in the study.”
"Kimberly Hieftje, the deputy director of play2PREVENT, said video games are a
natural way to engage youth. They allow adolescents to see the consequences of
their actions in a safe, albeit virtual space, while still maintaining a level
of control. For that reason, she added, video games offer the “perfect
platform.”
“Fiellin’s team has begun developing ways to
market PlayForward to a larger
audience through a web-based version and a smartphone app.”
“Hieftje, who is working to distribute play2PREVENT’s educational video games
to a larger population, said she hopes that PlayForward will augment rather than replace traditional methods of
sex education.”
“In an interview with the News, Tyra
Pendergrass FES ’10, associate director and community liaison of play2PREVENT, attributed video games’
effectiveness in large part to their low risk potential. Pendergrass, who
distributed PlayForward to New Haven
school programs, said that the majority of schools and parents were
enthusiastic once they realized that the game carried low risk and could teach
their children about sexual health and safety.”
“PlayForward’s success has generated momentum for the promotion of other
Serious Games, such as smokeSCREEN, which targets smoking prevention. Play2PREVENT
has partnered with national pharmacy chain CVS and Stanford University School
of Medicine to distribute smokeSCREEN
to upwards of 200,000 adolescents across the United States.”
smokeSCREEN. Image Credit play2PREVENT Lab
“According to the study authors, their research
on PlayForward is the first
randomized controlled trial to demonstrate a video game’s ability to influence
sexual attitudes and knowledge.”
“It was proof of concept,” says Fiellin. “To
our knowledge, never before has a videogame intervention been developed with
such extensive input from its target audience, and tested through rigorous
scientific methods over a long stretch of time, demonstrating that kids will
engage in a game with serious content and learn things that impact the way they
think and potentially what they do.”