ATTITUDE GAME : A study in the increase of bullying awareness in 9-12 years old children

Abstract: This thesis analyses how an increase in bullying awareness can be produced in children aged 9-12 years old playing an iPad serious game called Attitude Game. The project is conducted in collaboration with the company IUS Innovation, where two prototypes were developed by the author of the study, one with mechanics empowering not to bully and the other with mirror mechanics empowering to bully other children. The experiment was conducted with 29 children from a sports club in Göteborg.  A pre-measurement of empathy and a pre-test-post-test measurement of attitude towards bullied children were used to gather data, together with a post-interview during the experiment. Students were assigned to 3 groups, based on a random selection and previous knowledge about the game. The result of the experiment displayed that there was no statistical difference between the change in attitude towards bullied children regarding the empathy level and the prototype tested. The post-interviews displayed that all the participants understood the serious purpose of the game