Serious game to promote socioemotional learning and mental health (emoTIC): a study protocol for randomised controlled trial

INTRODUCTION: The development of emotional competences may be a protective factor for mental health problems, promoting well-being at such a complex age as adolescence. Technologies may be used to carry out this empowerment because adolescents are attracted to them. The purpose of the study is to design a serious game based on the Mayer et al’s emotional intelligence ability model and analyse the effectiveness of the emoTIC programme to develop emotional competences, well-being, mental health, and personal strengths immediately after completion and at 12 months. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The new version of emoTIC will be designed following the suggestions of the adolescents who participated in the pilot study and the results obtained from the statistical analysis. The participants will be 385 adolescents aged 11–16 years who will be randomly assigned to the control group and the experimental group. The experimental group will complete the emoTIC programme. The primary outcomes include emotional competences and subjective well-being. The secondary outcomes are self-esteem; general self-efficacy; personality; social and personal responsibility; school social climate; somatic complaints; depression, anxiety and stress symptoms; emotional and behavioural difficulties; suicidal behaviour; and subjective happiness. Data will be collected at three moments: baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 12-month follow-up (T3). The effectiveness of the programme will be analysed using different statistical packages. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study has been approved by the Ethics Commission of the University of Valencia (H152865096049), and the standards of the Declaration of Helsinki to collect the data will be followed. Results will be disseminated across the scientific community. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ClinicalTrials.gov Registry (NCT04414449). TRIAL SPONSOR: University of Valencia. Principal investigator: Inmaculada Montoya-Castilla.