Promoting mental health through watching, chatting and playing on Twitch and Minecraft: a participatory action research. (Preprint)

• DOI: 10.2196/preprints.75283
• Publication Date: 2025-04-09T03:10:06Z
• Authors: Lorraine Cousin C...; Philippe Martin; Thibault Contant; Claire Collin; Clara Eyraud; Bruno Berthier; Enora Le Roux

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.

CLINICALTRIAL ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06473857