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

在我们这个瞬息万变的社会中，年轻人的心理健康状况不佳和社会孤立现象越来越多，疫情加剧了这种情况。归属感——通过支持性的人际关系与他人联系并被他人接受——是促进心理健康和克服孤独感的关键。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。数字技术在扰乱社会格局的同时，也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确定。ASP使用智能手机提供真实世界的群体体验，结合身临其境的故事讲述，增强现实，协作面对面的游戏玩法和基于证据的心理治疗方法，以促进个人的心理健康，同时培养更大的群体归属感。我们将与学术界、工业界、教育界、卫生界和艺术界合作，并与年轻人合作，共同开发ASP #1，这是一项全面的、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策略，并评估其有效性、成本效益和实施情况，以便向包括政策制定者、从业者和媒体在内的利益相关者提供证据基础，促进广泛采用。我们将与弱势青少年合作，进一步发展ASP，确保满足最广泛的需求；针对不同人群和心理健康威胁的额外ASP干预措施的原型；通过制定全面的道德准则。我们的长期目标是广泛采用ASP，使多种智能手机提供的群体心理健康干预措施能够免费提供给不同的人群和环境。

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 stakeholders including 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.