This Teenager Is Developing a Video Game That Assesses Your Mental Health
This Teenager Is Developing a Video Game That Assesses Your Mental Health
This Teenager Is Developing a Video Game That Assesses Your Mental Health
By Lila Thulin
August 26, 2021
Summary
Alqahtani's ambitious proposal-inspired, in part, by personal experience with the stressors of the pandemic-won her a behavioral science award in this year's Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, an annual competition for ninth through twelfth graders administered by the Society for Science in Washington, D.C. Her prototype aims to address the problems of stigma and inaccessibility that, psychologists say, present substantial roadblocks to teens getting mental health care.
"In Saudi Arabia, we are starting now to connect the dots and to raise awareness about mental health. Going to a psychologist does still have a negative effect on a person in society." A recent meta-analysis in the journal PLoS One backs up Alqahtani's point; it found "Limited" mental health literacy and negative public attitudes about mental health in Saudi Arabia and neighboring Gulf states.
So as the pandemic made her and so many others feel anxious, she proposed a research project for a Mawhiba program that would use the familiar, fun format of a video game to evaluate players for GAD. Alqahtani put together a first draft of her test in two weeks.
Rather than the daunting task of building a full-blown game from scratch, Alqahtani set her sights on what she calls a "Feature," a module that users would access within a preexisting video game.
For the purposes of the prototype, she didn't actually code the feature but instead produced a video simulation of what it would look like within the game of "Minecraft." Alqahtani drew on one of her hobbies-she makes short films-and created a video that looked like "Minecraft: Story Mode," in which players choose their own adventures by indicating how they'd like to respond to various scenarios.
"It's often a very non-threatening space, because games are inherently a play space," says Kelli Dunlap, a clinical psychologist and adjunct professor of game design at American University who helms the mental health interest group of the International Game Developers Association.
Other mental-health video games have come together without marshalling Nintendo-level resources, like "Fractured Minds," an award-winning game about mental health challenges created by British teenager Emily Mitchell.
Reference
Thulin, L. (2021, August 26). This teenager is developing a video game that assesses your mental health. Retrieved October 25, 2021, from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/teenager-developing-video-game-assesses-your-mental-health-180978524/