Children’s Perspectives on Using Serious Games as a Complement to Promoting Their Social–Emotional Skills

Ana Xavier, Paula Vagos, Lara Palmeira, Paulo Menezes, Bruno Patrão, Sónia Pereira, Vanessa Rocha, Sofia Mendes and Marta Tavares
Additional contact information
Ana Xavier: Instituto de Desenvolvimento Humano Portucalense, Universidade Portucalense Infante D. Henrique, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal
Paula Vagos: Instituto de Desenvolvimento Humano Portucalense, Universidade Portucalense Infante D. Henrique, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal
Lara Palmeira: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Center for Research in Neuropsychology and Cognitive and Behavioural Intervention (CINEICC), University of Coimbra, 3000-115 Coimbra, Portugal
Paulo Menezes: Institute of Systems and Robotics (ISR), University of Coimbra, 3030-194 Coimbra, Portugal
Bruno Patrão: Institute of Systems and Robotics (ISR), University of Coimbra, 3030-194 Coimbra, Portugal
Sónia Pereira: Instituto de Desenvolvimento Humano Portucalense, Universidade Portucalense Infante D. Henrique, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal
Vanessa Rocha: Instituto de Desenvolvimento Humano Portucalense, Universidade Portucalense Infante D. Henrique, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal
Sofia Mendes: Centro de Investigação em Psicologia para o Desenvolvimento, Instituto de Psicologia e Ciências da Educação, Universidade Lusíada, 4100-346 Porto, Portugal
Marta Tavares: Agrupamento de Escolas de Valadares, 4405-594 Valadares, Portugal

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 15, 1-10

Abstract: The use of serious games may be an appealing and complementary way to motivate curriculum-based social and emotional learning (SEL); still, investigation into this potential usefulness is scarce. This study aims to address the usefulness of serious games within the program ‘Me and Us of Emotions’. Specifically, we analyzed the differences in children’s satisfaction in sessions that did or did not use serious games as a complement to the intervention, explored the contribution of using serious games to the global satisfaction with the program, and explored children’s qualitative feedback regarding the sessions. The participants were 232 children (122 boys and 110 girls) aged between 8 and 12 years old ( M = 9.09, SD = 0.80). The measures were based on the subjective appraisals of the sessions made by the participating children, including quantitative and qualitative assessments of the degree of satisfaction of the participants. The results showed that there were similar levels of satisfaction with the sessions that did or did not use serious games as a complement to the program. However, only satisfaction with the sessions that used serious games (and not satisfaction with the sessions that did not use them) contributed significantly to explaining both the enjoyment of the activities and the interest in the subjects. Satisfaction with serious games was significantly and positively associated with fun, easiness, ability to understand the session, and ability to cope with emotions. Qualitative analysis showed three main themes, namely: positive aspects, negative aspects, and opportunities for improvement of the program. Overall, these results indicate that children’s satisfaction with the ‘Me and Us of Emotions’ program is related to serious games, suggesting the relevance of using this complementary tool more often when intervening with younger generations.

Keywords: social–emotional learning; serious games; children; quantitative and qualitative appraisal of intervention (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9613/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9613/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:15:p:9613-:d:880409

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().