Augmented Social Play (ASP): smartphone-enabled group psychotherapeutic interventions that boost adolescent mental health by supporting real-world connection and sense of belonging

在我们快速变化的社会中，年轻人心理健康状况不佳和社会孤立的情况正在增加，这一流行病加剧了这种情况。归属感--通过支持性的人际关系与他人建立联系并被他人接受的感觉--是增进心理健康和克服孤独的关键。缺乏针对归属感的循证干预措施，特别是在学校，这仍然是青少年社会化的中心空间。数字技术在颠覆社会格局的同时，为青少年健康管理提供了巨大的潜力。该项目开发了增强社交游戏(ASP)，这是一种开创性的数字心理健康干预形式，其可行性已通过概念验证原型建立。ASP使用智能手机提供现实世界的群体体验，将身临其境的讲故事、增强现实、协作的面对面游戏和基于证据的心理治疗方法结合在一起，以促进个人的心理健康，同时培养更大的群体归属感。通过学术界、产业界、教育界、卫生界和艺术界的合作，并与年轻人合作，我们将共同开发ASP#1，这是一种全面、多阶段的干预措施。我们将在葡萄牙、捷克和英国的学校实施这一干预措施，使用政策审查提供的战略，并评估其效力、成本效益和实施情况，以便向包括政策制定者、实践者和媒体在内的利益相关者提供证据基础，促进广泛采用。我们将通过与弱势青少年合作以确保我们满足最广泛的需求，通过针对不同人群和对心理健康的威胁制定额外的ASP干预措施，以及通过制定全面的道德准则，进一步发展ASP。我们的长期目标是广泛采用ASP，使不同人群和环境免费获得多种智能手机提供的群体心理健康干预。

In our fast-changing society, poor mental health and social isolation are increasing among young people, exacerbated by the pandemic. Belonging – feeling connected to and accepted by others through supportive interpersonal relationships – is key to boosting mental health and overcoming loneliness. There is a lack of evidence-based interventions addressing belonging, particularly in schools, which remains a central space for adolescent socialisation. Digital technologies, while disrupting the social landscape, offer enormous potential for adolescent health management. This project develops Augmented Social Play (ASP), a pioneering digital mental health intervention format whose feasibility has been established through proof-of-concept prototype. ASP uses smartphones to deliver real world group experiences that combine immersive storytelling, augmented reality, collaborative face-to-face gameplay and evidence based psychotherapeutic methodologies to boost individuals’ mental health while fostering a greater sense of belonging within the group. Collaborating across academia, industry, education, health and the arts, and working with young people, we will co-develop ASP #1, a full-scale, multi-session intervention. We will implement this intervention in schools in Portugal, Czechia, and the UK, using strategies informed by policy review, and evaluate its efficacy, cost-effectiveness and implementation in order to present an evidence base to stakeholdersincluding policy-makers, practitioners and media,stimulating wide uptake. We will further evolve ASP by collaborating with vulnerable adolescents to ensure we meet the widest spectrum of needs; by prototyping additional ASP interventions aimed at different populations and threats to mental health; and by creating comprehensive ethical guidelines. Our long-term goal is wide-scale adoption of ASP, making multiple smartphone-delivered group mental health interventions freely accessible to diverse populations and settings.