Development and the Study of the Effectiveness of Serious Game under Android, Emile and the Toy Box in Anger Management for Children: Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

Currently, anger and violence are one of the important reasons for referral of children and adolescents to counseling and psychotherapy. Anger management skills are one of the most effective approaches to prevent the expansion of high-risk behaviors and to improve personal and social efficiency. The purpose of this study was to design a new game for anger prevention and teaching anger management skills in children.

Due to the availability of smart phones, the game was designed and implemented as an Android-based application for children. Using Android Basic software, the game was developed according to the advices taken from peers in in psychology and computer science. To evaluate the clinical effectiveness of the game, 105 children aged 8 to 12 years old were included from Khomeini Shahr and randomly divided into control and experimental groups. The experimental group (n=52) received the software while the control group (n=53) were trained by traditional method and group method under the supervision of counselor. Anger rate was measured using the Novak Anger Questionnaire. Paired T test and Independent T tests were administered for intra- and intergroup comparisons.

Participation in the traditional anger management training program and Emily's play in both groups significantly reduced the three components of anger and overall anger score on the Nova scale. And in other words, using Emily's software and the toy box was just as effective as traditional methods of teaching anger management to children. However, the reduction in anger scores and its components in the experimental group averaged 10 to 17 percent more than the traditional methods.

The results of this study showed that the android application “Emile and the Toy Box” may be effective for teaching anger management skills in children aged 8 years and older and it mainly reduced aggressive behaviors in children