Video game developed to improve emotional management in young people

Emerging adulthood represents a critical period for developing socio-emotional regulation skills. During this transitional stage, new roles, responsibilities and emotional challenges arise, which, in addition to requiring enhanced management skills, also demand new strategies aimed at strengthening individuals’ subjective and psychological well-being.

At times, difficulties in accessing traditional clinical therapies — such as lack of time or the stigma associated with seeking psychological help — mean that young people lack useful resources to navigate this stage of life in a healthy way.

The emoWELL project, developed by a joint team from the University of Valencia and the Polytechnic University of Valencia, has resulted in an educational game designed to dynamically train users in emotional skills and competences. Its approach focuses on understanding and developing healthy emotional regulation strategies aimed at improving personal well-being.

“It is a graphic adventure game that unfolds in the format of a train journey with several stops”, explains Inmaculada Montoya Castilla, professor of Personality, Assessment and Psychological Treatment at the UV and co-leader of the project. “The player controls an avatar who embarks on a journey with various stops where they encounter characters who lead them to activities, readings and interventions designed to train emotional regulation and strategies in areas such as self-esteem, self-care, stress management, reflection, time management and social support”, adds the researcher.

“The emoWELL technology integrates artificial intelligence with psychological assessment and intervention in an accessible technological platform, providing practical training and remote monitoring of users”, says José Antonio Gil Gómez, lecturer in the Department of Computer Systems and Computing and researcher at the ai2 Institute (University Institute of Automation and Industrial Computing) at the UPV. “It is an autonomous and dynamic intervention programme that adapts to the individual needs of each player, providing them with practical tools to improve their own emotional management”, adds Gil Gómez, co-leader of the project.

The effectiveness of the platform was validated through a study involving 114 university students divided into two groups — experimental and control — using statistical techniques applied to psychology, including MANOVA and MANCOVA, among others.

The results, published in Frontiers in Psychology, support the effectiveness of the video game. “We observed significant improvements in the experimental group, particularly in reducing expressive suppression, lack of control and overall emotion dysregulation. Improvements in emotional regulation indirectly enhanced self-acceptance and environmental mastery”, summarises Inmaculada Montoya. “Most participants rated the experience very positively, highlighting the educational content and the accessibility of the game. Some have even incorporated strategies learnt through the video game into their daily lives”, concludes Gil Gómez.

Funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (Project PID2020-114425RB-C21, MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033), emoWELL (“Intervention through an intelligent technological platform for socio-emotional development and well-being promotion: validation and implementation of a serious game”) presents itself as a preventive tool for emotional regulation in emerging adults with low emotional symptomatology, optimally used as a complementary tool under professional supervision or in university environments with adequate support.

The study also involved, among others, UV researchers Marián Pérez-Marín, Konstanze Schoeps, Selene Valero-Moreno, Saray Velert-Jiménez, Estefanía Mónaco Gerónimo and Hugo Sánchez Sánchez.

Reference:
Velert-Jiménez, S., Valero-Moreno, S., Gil-Gómez, J.-A., Pérez-Marín, M., and Montoya-Castilla, I. (2025). EmoWELL: effectiveness of a serious game for emotion regulation in emerging adulthood. Front. Psychol. 16:1561418. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1561418