Project Description:
Helping Parents Minds is a project in which we are developing a mentalization-based mobile game prototype with and for parents from socially disadvantaged backgrounds who are at risk of or already suffering from mental health problems. The prototype aims to train parents’ ability to mentalize their children, i.e. to improve their capacity to think about the mental states underlying their children’s behaviour and to respond in a way that supports their children’s needs. This can reduce parental stress and improve family functioning. The game prototype will be developed and tested in a co-design process involving parents from different backgrounds, recruited from the city and surrounding areas of Ulm, Germany. The project will be carried out by a team from the University of Ulm (Germany) and Interagens s.r.l. (Italy).
Project Type: Kickstarting Grant
Theme: Justice and Equity, Health
Mentor:Fermín Serrano
The First Citizen Science Project Developing a Mentalization-Based Mobile Game Prototype for Parents to Strengthen the Parent-Child Relationship
”"By developing a smartphone-based mobile game, we aim to raise awareness of parents' needs and provide them with a tool to improve their relationship with their child and enhance family functioning by strengthening their ability to mentalize."
HelpingParentsMinds is a citizen science project involving parents as citizen scientists in a participatory co-design process to develop a mobile game prototype. These parents come from disadvantaged backgrounds and often face significant psychological burdens. Our goal is to understand their needs and explore ways to address them through an easily accessible mobile parenting game. The mentalization-based mobile game prototype is grounded in the Lighthouse Parenting Programme, developed by Gerry Byrne (http://lighthouseparenting.net/gerrybyrne).
Parents and professionals who work with parents have become co-researchers, contributing to the co-design process by discussing the content, processes, and design of the mobile game prototype. This iterative co-design approach, incorporating various qualitative methods, has enabled us to tailor the prototype to the needs of socially disadvantaged parents.
In the current project phase, we are conducting a feasibility study in which parents test the co-designed mobile game prototype and provide feedback on its usability. We are assessing their satisfaction, acceptance, and actual use of the mobile game in daily life. This is an essential step toward conducting a clinical trial to evaluate the game’s effectiveness in enhancing mentalizing capacity and reducing parental stress.
Our aim is to make the concept of parental mentalizing and the benefits of reflecting on children’s mental states accessible to a broader group of parents. We offer a playful way to practice mentalization-based interaction components through the mobile game.
Note: The illustrations shown here are from the Lighthouse Parenting Programme, developed by Gerry Byrne. The seascape illustrations are by Jane Ray, and the beam pictures are by Madeleine Everett.
This work has been made possible with support from IMPETUS, which provided funding to develop the software architecture and content of the mobile game prototype, and to conduct the co-design process and test phase with citizen scientists.
We believe there is a significant need for this type of service to support overburdened parents and prevent the development of psychological stress and disorders in both parents and children. Our next goal is to further enhance the mobile game prototype by adding more features and content to the app.
1. German manual: Taubner, S., Georg, A., Volkert, J., Hausschild, S., & Byrne, G. (2020). 12-wöchiges ambulantes Leuchtturm Programm: Mentalisierungsbasiertes Programm für Eltern mit psychischen Störungen. Institut für Psychosoziale Prävention, Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg, Ruprecht-Karls Universität Heidelberg.
