De Masi, Federica (2025) Up2U: a Serious Game preventing antisocial behavior in adolescence. [Tesi di dottorato]

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Abstract

The study of antisocial behaviour has historically attracted considerable interest within the domain of psychological research. This necessity arises from the need to understand the risk factors associated with antisocial behaviour, as well as the protective factors that may help to prevent and counteract its spread. Consequently, considerable attention has been devoted to the formulation of intervention models aimed at addressing this issue. The initial study presented here investigates the problem of antisocial behaviour from some of its most extreme manifestations, such as youth violence and its determinants. The objective of this study is to develop a comprehensive and sophisticated account of the relationship between young people and violence through the use of a method such as the qualitative one. A series of focus groups with adolescents was conducted to explore the main determinants of violent behaviour. The study's findings support the notion that attitudes towards violence, cognitive mechanisms, social expectations, normative beliefs and emotion regulation are all involved in the implementation of violent behaviour. The subsequent section of the thesis examines the role of self-serving cognitive mechanisms on antisocial behaviour in greater detail. The objective of the second study was to develop a measurement scale of "Cognitive Mechanisms for Neutralizing Guilt" in adolescence that could capture the way youth think about antisocial behaviours and to analyse its psychometric properties. The factorial structure of the CMNG measure was then subjected to rigorous CFAs, which revealed that a five-factor model composed of distinct dimensions with a higher order was the most appropriate model, with all factor loadings being satisfactory. The subsequent section of this thesis will present a detailed exposition on the development of a serious game that has been designed with the objective of promoting pro-social behaviour and reducing anti-social behaviour, with a focus on adolescents. The primary objective of the third study was to evaluate the efficacy of the Up2U program in terms of both social-cognitive processes and regulatory emotional self-efficacy outcomes, employing a quasi-experimental pretest/post-test with a control group design.

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