TY - JOUR
T1 - The Impact of Serious Educational Gameplay on Adolescent Binge Drinking Intentions
T2 - A Theoretically Grounded Empirical Examination
AU - Willmott, Taylor
AU - Russell-Bennett, Rebekah
AU - Drennan, Judy
AU - Rundle-Thiele, Sharyn
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The data in which this article originates were funded by the Australian Research Council Linkage Program and Queensland Catholic Education Commission (LP130100345) and Griffith University.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Society for Public Health Education.
PY - 2019/2/1
Y1 - 2019/2/1
N2 - Introduction. Game On: Know Alcohol, a school-based alcohol education program, aimed to educate adolescents on the harmful effects of (excessive) alcohol consumption. The program included two user-centered serious educational games, Perfect Pour and Dumb Driver. Purpose. To evaluate the objective effect of playing Perfect Pour and Dumb Driver on the key psychosocial determinants of adolescent binge drinking intentions in the context of the theory of reasoned action (TRA). Methods. Data were drawn from four Game On: Know Alcohol program schools (N = 303 adolescents aged 14-16 years), and two TRA models incorporating four game metrics were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results. The theoretically guided TRA models linked to gameplay data explained 66% of variance in adolescents’ binge drinking intentions. Average game duration and average score of Perfect Pour were significantly associated with adolescents’ attitudes toward binge drinking, whereas no objective effect on the key psychosocial determinants was observed for Dumb Driver. Conclusions. Inconclusive findings suggest that further research is needed to fully understand how serious educational games may be designed to effectively influence adolescents’ binge drinking intentions. Opportunities to extend theory application beyond evaluation are noted in addition to other opportunities for future research.
AB - Introduction. Game On: Know Alcohol, a school-based alcohol education program, aimed to educate adolescents on the harmful effects of (excessive) alcohol consumption. The program included two user-centered serious educational games, Perfect Pour and Dumb Driver. Purpose. To evaluate the objective effect of playing Perfect Pour and Dumb Driver on the key psychosocial determinants of adolescent binge drinking intentions in the context of the theory of reasoned action (TRA). Methods. Data were drawn from four Game On: Know Alcohol program schools (N = 303 adolescents aged 14-16 years), and two TRA models incorporating four game metrics were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results. The theoretically guided TRA models linked to gameplay data explained 66% of variance in adolescents’ binge drinking intentions. Average game duration and average score of Perfect Pour were significantly associated with adolescents’ attitudes toward binge drinking, whereas no objective effect on the key psychosocial determinants was observed for Dumb Driver. Conclusions. Inconclusive findings suggest that further research is needed to fully understand how serious educational games may be designed to effectively influence adolescents’ binge drinking intentions. Opportunities to extend theory application beyond evaluation are noted in addition to other opportunities for future research.
KW - adolescent health
KW - alcohol and substance abuse
KW - binge drinking
KW - psychosocial determinants
KW - serious educational games
KW - theory of reasoned action
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85050195764&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1090198118780493
DO - 10.1177/1090198118780493
M3 - Article
C2 - 30027760
AN - SCOPUS:85050195764
SN - 1090-1981
VL - 46
SP - 114
EP - 125
JO - Health Education and Behavior
JF - Health Education and Behavior
IS - 1
ER -