short-paper

Strengthening Invisible Ties: Decreasing Loneliness Indices of University Students Through a Gamified Mobile App

Authors:

Rogério Augusto Bordini,

Oliver KornAuthors Info & Claims

GoodIT '22: Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Conference on Information Technology for Social Good

Pages 424 - 430

https://doi.org/10.1145/3524458.3548489

Published: 07 September 2022 Publication History

Abstract

During the periods of social isolation to contain the advance of COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021, educational institutions have had the challenge to adopt technological strategies not only to ensure continuity in students’ classes, but also to support their mental health in a period of uncertainty and health risks. Loneliness is an emotional distress caused by the lack of meaningful social connections; it has increasingly affected young adults worldwide during the pandemic's social isolation and still bears psychological effects in the current post-pandemic period. In the light of this challenge, the Nonenliness App was developed as a way to bring together university communities to address issues related to loneliness and mental health disorders through a gamified and social online environment. In this paper, we present the app and its main functionalities (Beta version) and discuss the preliminary results of a pilot clinical study conducted with university students in Germany (N = 12) to verify the app's efficacy and usability, alongside the challenges faced and the next steps to be taken regarding the platform's improvement.

References

[1]

Natarajan Kathirvel. 2020. Post COVID-19 pandemic mental health challenges. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 53, 102430. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102430

[2]

Leonardo Villani, Roberta Pastorino, Enrico Molinari, Franco Anelli, Walter Ricciardi, Guendalina Graffigna, and Stefania Boccia. 2021. Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychological well-being of students in an Italian university: a web-based cross-sectional survey. Globalization And Health 17 (1).

[3]

Rachael H. Dodd, Kevin Dadaczynski, Orkan Okan, Kirsten J. McCaffery, and Kristen Pickles. 2021. Psychological wellbeing and academic experience of university students in Australia during COVID-19. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18 (3): 866.

[4]

Ziyuan Ren, Yaodong Xin, Junpeng Ge, Zheng Zhao, Dexiang Liu, Roger C. M. Ho, and Cyrus S. H. Ho. 2021. Psychological impact of COVID-19 on college students after school reopening: a cross-sectional study based on machine learning. Frontiers in Psychology 12.

[5]

Agata Rudnik, Paulina Anikiej-Wiczenbach, Aleksandra Szulman-Wardal, Paul Conway, and Mariola Bidzan. 2021. Offering Psychological Support To University Students In Poland During The COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons Learned From An Initial Evaluation. Frontiers In Psychology 12.

[6]

Emma Bruehlman-Senecal, Cayce J Hook, Jennifer H Pfeifer, Caroline FitzGerald, Brittany Davis, Kevin L Delucchi, Jana Haritatos, and Danielle E Ramo. 2020. Smartphone app to address loneliness among college students: pilot randomized controlled trial. JMIR Mental Health 7 (10): e21496.

[7]

Rogério A. Bordini. 2018. Design process of an application to combat loneliness in young depressives. In UD18 Proceedings Book: Invisible Design of the 7th Meeting on PhD Design Research. 1st edition: ISBN 978-972-789-585-4, pages 141-149.

[8]

Justin Marley and Saeed Farooq. 2015. Mobile telephone apps in mental health practice: uses, opportunities and challenges. BJPsych bulletin vol. 39,6: 288-90.

[9]

Pooja Chandrashekar. 2018. Do mental health mobile apps work: Evidence and recommendations for designing high-efficacy mental health mobile apps. mHealth, 4, 6. https://doi.org/10.21037/mhealth.2018.03.02.

[10]

David Bakker, Nikolaos Kazantzis, Debra Rickwood and Nikki Rickard. 2016. Mental health smartphone apps: Review and evidence-based recommendations for future developments. In JMIR Ment Health 3(1): e7.

[11]

Rogério A. Bordini, Johann-Christoph Münscher, Kim Annabell Baumgartner, Sara Hagos, Jennifer Hornig, Stefano Gampe, Berkay Yaman, Oliver Korn and Philipp Yorck Herzberg. 2021. Strangers in a strange land: designing a mobile application to combat loneliness and isolation among foreign university students. J. technol. behav. sci. 6, 81–87. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41347-020-00171-6

[12]

Rogério A. Bordini and Oliver Korn. 2021. Noneliness. Extended Abstracts Of The 2021 Annual Symposium On Computer-Human Interaction In Play.

Digital Library

[13]

Christopher M. Masi, Hsi-Yuan Chen, Louise C. Hawkley and John T. Cacioppo. 2011. A meta-analysis of interventions to reduce loneliness. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 15, 219-266.

[14]

Erlenawati Sawir, Simon Marginson, Ana Deumert, Chris Nyland and Gaby Ramia. 2007. Loneliness and international students: An Australian study. Journal of Studies in International Education - J STUD INT EDUC, 12, 148–180. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315307299699.

[15]

Konstantina Vasileiou, Julie Barnett, Manuela Barreto, John Vines, Mark Atkinson, Kiel Long, Lyndsey Bakewell, Shaun Lawson and Michael Wilson. 2018. Coping with loneliness at University: a qualitative interview study with students in the UK, Mental Health & Prevention.

[16]

Frances James. 2019. Mental Health in Higher Education: What Role Should Universities Play? Retrieved July 16, 2021 from https://www.qs.com/mental-health-higher-education-what-role-universities-play/?utm_source=website&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=Loneliness

[17]

Theresa M. Fleming, Lynda Bavin, Karolina Stasiak, Eve Hermansson-Webb, Sally N. Merry, Colleen Cheek, Mathijs Lucassen, Ho Ming Lau, Britta Pollmuller and Sarah Hetrick. 2017. Serious games and gamification for mental health: Current status and promising directions. In Frontiers in Psychiatry. 7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2016.00215.Google Scholar

[18]

Vanessa Wan Sze Cheng, Tracey Davenport, Daniel Johnson, Kellie Vella and Ian B. Hickie. 2019. Gamification in Apps and Technologies for Improving Mental Health and Well-Being: Systematic Review. JMIR mental health, 6(6), e13717. https://doi.org/10.2196/13717

[19]

Vanessa Wan Sze Cheng. 2020. Recommendations for Implementing Gamification for Mental Health and Wellbeing. Frontiers in psychology, 11, 586379. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.586379

[20]

S. H. Lovibond and P. F. Lovibond. 1995. Depression anxiety stress scales. Psyctests Dataset.

[21]

Daniel Russell. 1996. UCLA loneliness scale (version 3): Reliability, validity, and factor structure. Journal of Personality Assessment, 66(1), 20–40. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa6601_2.

[22]

John Brooke. 1996. SUS - a quick and dirty usability scale. In Usability Evaluation in Industry, Jordan, P, Thomas, B, Weerdmeester, B, and McLelland, I. Taylor and Francis: London.

[23]

Alfred P. Rovai. 2002. Sense of community, perceived cognitive learning, and persistence. In: Asynchronous Learning Networks. The Internet And Higher Education 5 (4): 319-332.

[24]

Xiaojing Liu, Richard J. Magjuka, Curtis J. Bonk and Seung-hee Lee. 2007. Does sense of community matter? An examination of participants' perceptions of building learning communities in online courses. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, v8 n1 p9-24.

Cited By

Spahl WMotta VWoodcock KRubeis G(2024)Gamified Digital Mental Health Interventions for Young People: Scoping Review of Ethical Aspects During Development and ImplementationJMIR Serious Games10.2196/6448812(e64488)Online publication date: 28-Nov-2024
https://doi.org/10.2196/64488
Schnitzer BCaserman PKorn O(2024)Sky Dash: Evaluating the Effects of a Serious Low-Threshold Mobile Game on Learning Efficacy and User Experience in a Repetitive Learning TaskSerious Games10.1007/978-3-031-74138-8_16(211-227)Online publication date: 31-Oct-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-74138-8_16

Index Terms

Strengthening Invisible Ties: Decreasing Loneliness Indices of University Students Through a Gamified Mobile App
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. Empirical studies in HCI
  2. Interaction design
    1. Interaction design process and methods
      1. User centered design

Recommendations

Loneliness, parent-child communication and cyberbullying victimization among Spanish youths

Cyberbullying has been recognized as an important risk factor for mental health. Few studies have analyzed relationships between family variables and cyberbullying victimization. This ex post facto study analyze the relationships between loneliness, ...
Benefits and risks of LGBT social media use for sexual and gender minority individuals: An investigation of psychosocial mechanisms of LGBT social media use and well-being
Abstract
There has been a proliferation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) social media platforms and users over the past decade. Previous studies have reported mixed effects of social media use on well-being, but less is known ...
Highlights
- LGBT social media use may involve both benefits and risks.
- Effects of LGBT ...
Cyberbullying, self-esteem, empathy and loneliness
Highlights
- Low self-esteem predicts greater cyberbullying victimisation and perpetration.
- ...
Abstract
Cyberbullying is a unique phenomenon, distinguished from traditional bullying by the speed at which information is distributed, permanence of material and availability of victims. There is however a paucity of research in this area, ...

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

GoodIT '22: Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Conference on Information Technology for Social Good

September 2022

436 pages

ISBN:9781450392846

DOI:10.1145/3524458

Copyright © 2022 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Sponsors

SIGCAS: ACM Special Interest Group on Computers and Society

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 07 September 2022

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Short-paper
Research
Refereed limited

Funding Sources

German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)

Conference

GoodIT 2022

Sponsor:

SIGCAS

GoodIT 2022: ACM International Conference on Information Technology for Social Good

September 7 - 9, 2022

Limassol, Cyprus

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

2
Total Citations
View Citations
115
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)37
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)4

Reflects downloads up to 03 Feb 2025

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Spahl WMotta VWoodcock KRubeis G(2024)Gamified Digital Mental Health Interventions for Young People: Scoping Review of Ethical Aspects During Development and ImplementationJMIR Serious Games10.2196/6448812(e64488)Online publication date: 28-Nov-2024
https://doi.org/10.2196/64488
Schnitzer BCaserman PKorn O(2024)Sky Dash: Evaluating the Effects of a Serious Low-Threshold Mobile Game on Learning Efficacy and User Experience in a Repetitive Learning TaskSerious Games10.1007/978-3-031-74138-8_16(211-227)Online publication date: 31-Oct-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-74138-8_16

View Options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

HTML Format

View this article in HTML Format.

Figures

Tables

Media

View Table of Conten