Our Generation app: Co-designing a digital intervention engendering resilience and self-awareness in children and young people

The effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and their negative impacts on mental health, self-regulatory capacities, education, employment, and crime are well-known. Therefore, building resilience at a population level has the capacity to reduce the likelihood of several stress-related disorders and, consequently, self-harm. The importance of psychological well-being among Children & Young People (C&YP) is evident from global estimates highlighting 50% of mental health problems are established by age 14 and 75% by age 24. Indicators identified from literature as contributors to emotional resilience and peace-building include mental health and well-being, empathy, perspective-taking, intergroup trust, coping & problem-solving, and outgroup attitudes. Co-production workshops were designed and held with groups of young people to identify, explore and seek consensus on ideas for the gamification of the app using the identified indicators. Workshop participants were asked to discuss the apps they enjoy, and for games apps, what kind of stories they enjoy, what kind of characters they would like to see, and what type of rewards that they would like to see. Each version has 3 challenges to complete for the six indicators, 18 games and activities in total. Players complete an indicator-specific questionnaire, based on the games and activities they have engaged in, both before and after each level. As players progress through the game, stars are earned and players are ranked, with four ranks that can be achieved, from expert, ambassador, champion to genius. This app will provide a population wide resource that can be used to improve resilience and peace building, and evaluate changes in attitudes, knowledge, behaviours, and skills across these indicators through the gamification of interventions relating to these. Acknowledgements: OUR Generation project supported by EU PEACE_IV Programme.