Here Comes the Fun: Co-Creating Digital Games with Adolescents and Families to Support Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing in Social Media Spaces

Young Futures (‘Here Comes the Fun’ Cohort)

10/1/25-9/30/26

Lynn E. Fiellin, MD (Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth)

Tyra Pendergrass Boomer, MEM; Katie Haile, MPH; Caroline M. Barry, MPH, PhD

Recent data indicate that over 40% of U.S. adolescents report persistent sadness or hopelessness, and nearly half believe social media negatively affects their peers’ mental health. In prior focus groups conducted by the play2PREVENT (p2P) Lab, adolescents described how toxic positivity—where peers pretend everything is fine, especially on social media—creates confusion and stigma, making it harder to express real emotions. This pressure can prevent youth from seeking help or expressing when they’re struggling. These findings highlight the need for interventions that help adolescents and their families navigate the emotional and social dynamics of online environments.

Building on the p2P Lab’s 15 years of work developing and evaluating evidence-based digital health games, and adapting features from our NIH-funded PlaySmart game, the new social media game PlaySocial will focus on the potential benefits and mental health harms of social media. The game will explore how best to enhance the pro-social aspects of social media use while mitigating the known harms to teen mental health and wellbeing. The new game will aim to also help teens gain a better understanding of what is “real” when they engage with social media.

The project will implement a three-phase research approach. In the first phase, we will conduct focus groups with adolescents and their parents/guardians to explore adolescents’ emotional experiences on Instagram and the dynamics of parent/guardian- adolescents communication around social media use. In the second phase, play-testing, both adolescents and parents/guardians will engage with storyboards and an initial paper prototype of the game to provide real-time feedback, helping refine content and delivery mechanisms. In the third phase, we will conduct a pilot test incorporating pre- and post-game surveys to evaluate the paper prototype’s feasibility and preliminary effectiveness.

This project addresses a critical public health need by addressing the growing mental health challenges linked to social media, including anxiety, depression, loneliness, and peer pressure. By developing and testing this game-based paper prototype, we aim to reduce emotional distress or problematic social media use among adolescents and improve parent-adolescent communication patterns around social media use.