Nutrition Science and Behavioral Theories Integrated in a Serious Game for Adolescents

AbstractPurpose . Serious games have demonstrated positive effects on adolescent eating and physical activity. The purpose of this paper is to describe how constructs from social cognitive theory SCT and self-determination theory SDT were operationalized in the development of the serious game CREATURE 101 C-101 to engage players in acquiring motivation , knowledge, skills, and personal agency. Approach . C-101 was developed from an evaluated nutrition and science curriculum for middle school youth, Choice, Control & Change C3 . Its behavior change goals are three pairs of increasedecrease behaviors: increase water decease sweetened beverages, increase fruit and vegetables decrease processed snacks chips, candy etc, and increase physical activity light, medium, intense decrease recreational screen time watching TV, playing video games for fun through a virtual companion care motif where the players bring their adopted creatures back to health. Several procedures or strategies were used to develop the story line and activities in C-101 to address autonomy, competence and relatedness from SDT and outcome expectations , self-efficacy , and behavioral capability from SCT , constructs shown in previous studies as likely to enhance effectiveness of nutrition and physical activity interventions. Implications . This description of how the theory constructs and procedures were used to create an entertaining serious game based on an existing evaluated health-related curriculum can help game developers, curriculum developers, and educators who wish to expand existing curricula through the development and integration of games into their work.