Department of Educational Psychology, Counseling, and Special Education, Pennsylvania State University, 201 Cedar Building, University Park 16801, United States.
Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, Moore Building, University Park, PA 16801, United States.
J Safety Res. 2022 Sep;82:85-92. doi: 10.1016/j.jsr.2022.04.008. Epub 2022 May 9.
Unintentional home injuries are common and costly, with over 1.6 million occurring among U.S. children ages 0-4 in 2018. Home visitors and other early childhood professionals can provide valuable prevention education and intervention to reduce unintentional injury risk for children. This proof-of-concept study aimed to test the feasibility of the first phase of Home Safety Hero, a software-based serious game simulation that trains users in identification of home safety risks, as a capacity building tool for early childhood professionals.
The game simulation's potential for knowledge promotion and engagement in a sample of home visitors was explored based on play of the first phase. Repeated measures ANOVAs were used to assess learning via reaction time, and engagement was measured via the User Engagement Scale (UES).
Reaction time (i.e., average time to identify hazards) improved from the first to last levels in both single and mixed category levels in this trial. Participant indicated agreement with four subscales of engagement measured by the UES, and neutral to agree on a fifth subscale, focused attention.
We propose that this game simulation can meet the unique training needs of early childhood professionals while promoting home safety knowledge that can improve prevention work with families. Participant feedback was largely positive, and results suggest that the game simulation is engaging and contributes to knowledge.
The Home Safety Hero serious game simulation is a flexible training option that appeared to be feasible for reducing time to hazard identification among home visitors in this proof-of-concept study. The design of the game simulation has utility in meeting the specialized training needs of early childhood professionals and potential to build their capacity to provide direct intervention around home safety, reducing risk for unintentional injury among children.
非故意的家庭伤害很常见，且代价高昂，2018 年美国有超过 160 万 0-4 岁儿童发生此类伤害。家访员和其他幼儿专业人员可以提供有价值的预防教育和干预，以降低儿童意外伤害风险。本概念验证研究旨在测试 Home Safety Hero 的第一阶段（一种基于软件的严重游戏模拟）的可行性，该模拟训练用户识别家庭安全风险，作为幼儿专业人员的能力建设工具。
根据第一阶段的游戏模拟，探索该游戏模拟在家庭访问者样本中促进知识推广和参与的潜力。重复测量方差分析用于通过反应时间评估学习，通过用户参与量表（UES）测量参与度。
在这项试验中，无论是在单一类别水平还是混合类别水平，参与者的反应时间（即识别危险的平均时间）都从第一关提高到最后一关。参与者对 UES 测量的四个参与度子量表表示同意，对第五个子量表——注意力集中表示中立到同意。
我们提出，这种游戏模拟可以满足幼儿专业人员的独特培训需求，同时促进家庭安全知识，从而改善与家庭的预防工作。参与者的反馈大多是积极的，结果表明该游戏模拟具有吸引力，有助于知识的获取。
Home Safety Hero 严重游戏模拟是一种灵活的培训选择，在本概念验证研究中，它似乎可以减少家访员识别危险的时间，具有可行性。该游戏模拟的设计具有满足幼儿专业人员特殊培训需求的实用性，并有潜力增强他们在家庭安全方面提供直接干预的能力，从而降低儿童意外伤害的风险。
