Youth mental health continues to be a pressing issue of our time. While the prevalence of youth experiencing mental health conditions has declined somewhat in recent years, the need remains significant. Data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administrationopens in new window indicates that approximately 15% of adolescents (or 3.7 million youth, age 12–17) experienced a major depressive episode in 2025. Additionally, 10% of adolescents (2.6 million) had serious thoughts of suicide in the past year, 1.3 million had a plan, and over 700,000 attempted suicide. Crucially, not all who need treatment are receiving services. Of those adolescents who experienced a major depressive episode, only 58% received treatment.
Given the ongoing need, efforts are underway to develop innovative ways to proactively reach youth to support their mental health. Researchers at Dartmouth have been developing educational video games to promote health behaviorsopens in new window and foster teens’ mental health. PlaySmart is a digital, self-guided gameopens in new window that was codeveloped with teens to promote mental health and prevent opioid misuse. The game presents challenging scenarios based on teens’ real experiences. The player of the game is the main character in the story and navigates peer interactions and decision-making with the goal of strengthening emotional awareness, problem solving, and positive beliefs about support seeking.
In a clinical trial, 532 high school students were randomized to either use PlaySmart or a commercially available, nontherapeutic game. The participants were instructed to play the game for about 40–60 minutes a week over 6 weeks during designated times at school. Participants were assessed on a variety of measures, including depression, anxiety, and beliefs about psychological services.
A secondary analysis of the trial dataopens in new window demonstrated that participants in the PlaySmart group had more positive views of psychological services at the end of the 6-week intervention and had reductions in depression at a 12 month follow up compared with the control group. However, anxiety remained unchanged. While reduction in depression was modest, it was consistent across demographic groups and was similar in amount of symptom improvement that is typically reported in the wider prevention literature. This suggests that digital games could be a scalable way to reach and support youth mental health.
Learn more about the work of the research teamopens in new window and the other video games that they have developed.
