Currently submitted to: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Apr 8, 2025
Open Peer Review Period: Apr 8, 2025 - Jun 3, 2025
(currently open for review)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Promoting mental health through watching, chatting and playing on Twitch and Minecraft: a participatory action research.
ABSTRACT
Background:
Mental health concerns among adolescents and young adults have increased post-pandemic. Mental health literacy remains insufficient in this population despite its importance for health outcomes. Gaming platforms, central to youth culture, offer potential for innovative health interventions.
Objective:
To co-design with Minecraft players and Twitch streamers, implement, and evaluate a gaming-based intervention delivered through Minecraft and broadcasted on Twitch to promote mental health literacy among adolescents and young adults (aged 15-25 years).
Methods:
Using a co-design approach with four streamers and a clinical psychologist, "#walkyourtherapist" was developed as a streaming event where a psychologist-streamer pair combined gameplay with mental health literacy education. A quasi-experimental comparative study evaluated the intervention through MHLq questionnaire (pre/post), observations, chat analysis, and interviews. A different streaming community served as the control group.
Results:
Three "#walkyourtherapist" sessions reached over 600 unique viewers. The intervention group was measured at baseline (n=97) and follow-up (n=43). Though these measurements cannot ensure the same individuals participated at both times, the community showed significant improvement in mental health literacy scores (from 94 to 104, p<0.01), particularly in knowledge of mental health problems, first aid skills, and self-help strategies. Streamers reported high satisfaction and increased personal mental health awareness.
Conclusions:
This innovative approach shows promising results for youth mental health promotion through gaming platforms. The successful engagement and improved literacy scores demonstrate the potential of virtually co-constructed interventions leveraging streamers within existing communities. Future research should focus on improving control group participation and maintaining long-term engagement to enable stronger evidence generation. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06473857
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