Nutrition Science and Behavioral Theories Integrated in a Serious Game for Adolescents

Dalia Majumdar, Pamela A. Koch, Heewon Lee Gray, Isobel R. Contento, Ana de Lourdes Islas-Ramos and Daniel Fu

Simulation & Gaming, 2015, vol. 46, issue 1, 68-97

Abstract: Purpose . Serious games have demonstrated positive effects on adolescent eating and physical activity. The purpose of this paper is to describe how constructs from social cognitive theory (SCT) and self-determination theory (SDT) were operationalized in the development of the serious game CREATURE 101 (C-101) to engage players in acquiring motivation , knowledge, skills, and personal agency. Approach . C-101 was developed from an evaluated nutrition and science curriculum for middle school youth, Choice, Control & Change (C3) . Its behavior change goals are three pairs of “increase/decrease†behaviors: increase water / decease sweetened beverages, increase fruit and vegetables / decrease processed snacks (chips, candy etc), and increase physical activity (light, medium, intense) / decrease recreational screen time (watching TV, playing video games for fun) through a “virtual companion care†motif where the players bring their adopted creatures back to health. Several procedures or strategies were used to develop the story line and activities in C-101 to address autonomy, competence and relatedness from SDT and outcome expectations , self-efficacy , and behavioral capability from SCT , constructs shown in previous studies as likely to enhance effectiveness of nutrition and physical activity interventions. Implications . This description of how the theory constructs and procedures were used to create an entertaining serious game based on an existing evaluated health-related curriculum can help game developers, curriculum developers, and educators who wish to expand existing curricula through the development and integration of games into their work.

Keywords: adolescents; behavior; behavior change procedures; choice; control & change; energy balance; entertainment; game development; gaming; goal setting; health-related curriculum; mastery learning; middle-school; motivation; nutrition; obesity; outcome expectations; physical activity; science curriculum; self-determination theory; self-efficacy; self-regulation; serious games; social cognitive theory; theory-based behavior change; video game; virtual world (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:simgam:v:46:y:2015:i:1:p:68-97

DOI: 10.1177/1046878115577163

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