{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,10]],"date-time":"2026-06-10T03:26:46Z","timestamp":1781062006826,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":36,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,7,25]],"date-time":"2023-07-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1690243200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Authority for Scientific Research","award":["PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2020-2170"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2020-2170"]}]},{"name":"National Authority for Scientific Research","award":["PN-III-P2-2.1-PED-2019-3837"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PN-III-P2-2.1-PED-2019-3837"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100006595","name":"CNCS\u2014UEFISCDI Funding Agency","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2020-2170"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2020-2170"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100006595","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100006595","name":"CNCS\u2014UEFISCDI Funding Agency","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["PN-III-P2-2.1-PED-2019-3837"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PN-III-P2-2.1-PED-2019-3837"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100006595","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Children"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: Children and adolescents\u2019 help-seeking behaviors are often limited by fear, uncertainty, and stigma, as well as challenges with finding the right intervention, help, and a lack of familiarity with the process. A promising direction for the development of therapeutic interventions targeted at children is embedding them into gamified interventions, known as therapeutic or serious games. The aim of this paper is to describe the protocol of the beta REThink therapeutic game and to evaluate the usability of the game in a sample of children and adolescents. Methods: The study was delivered in schools, where 137 children and adolescents aged between 9 and 16 years old played the levels of the REThink game, followed by filling in the usability questionnaire. Findings: The results show above average evaluations for all levels of the game, for every dimension evaluated, namely presence\/immersion, enjoyment, learning effectiveness, narratives, goal clarity, adequacy of learning material, and motivation. This study contributes to the literature on the usability of cognitive behavioral therapy-based therapeutic games for improvements in the emotion regulation abilities of children and adolescents, which can guide researchers interested in testing the REThink game in different protocols, as well to encourage its use by mental health specialists and parents.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/children10081276","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,7,26]],"date-time":"2023-07-26T00:45:02Z","timestamp":1690332302000},"page":"1276","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":9,"title":["The REThink Online Therapeutic Game: A Usability Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9152-2004","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ioana","family":"Iuga","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Evidence-Based Psychological Assessment and Interventions Doctoral School, Babe\u0219-Bolyai University, 400015 Cluj-Napoca, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4729-3763","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Cristina","family":"Tomoiaga","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Evidence-Based Psychological Assessment and Interventions Doctoral School, Babe\u0219-Bolyai University, 400015 Cluj-Napoca, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8706-1778","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Oana","family":"David","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Babe\u0219-Bolyai University, 400015 Cluj-Napoca, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,7,25]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1142","DOI":"10.1001\/jamapediatrics.2021.2482","article-title":"Global prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms in children and adolescents during COVID-19: A meta-analysis","volume":"175","author":"Racine","year":"2021","journal-title":"JAMA Pediatr."},{"key":"ref_2","first-page":"1","article-title":"Mental Health Surveillance Among Children\u2014United States, 2013\u20132019","volume":"71","author":"Bitsko","year":"2022","journal-title":"Morb. 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