Preventing dating violence: The goodvibes project

Abstract

Dating violence is a public health problem that affects young people (ages 13 to 20). It is usually defined as an intention to engage in physical, sexual or psychological/emotional violence in a relationship between young people. Recently, online violence has been included in the category of dating violence since it is increasingly prevalent among young people (Niolon et al., 2019; Taquette, S., Monteiro, D., 2019; Fernández-González et al., 2018; Peterson et al., 2018). Due to the severity of this problem among young people, there are worldwide efforts to implement strategies to prevent dating violence (Lee, C., Wong, J. S., 2020). Most implemented strategies focus on promoting healthy relationships and helping young people to recognize violent and abusive behavior (Lee, C., Wong, J. S., 2020). The paper aims to present the GoodVibes project and its results. The project is part of the Sol do Ave Association. This association has contributed to the development of the Vale do Ave region (Northern Portugal) through very diversified interventions. The project started by engaging teenagers aged 15 to 18 years, from two schools in Guimarães (Portugal), in the project activities. Students were asked to develop game scenarios in a specific game engine, GDeveloper. The objective was to involve students in the co-creation of the games and motivate them to learn the concepts and healthy behaviors associated with their scenarios. As a result of the co-creation process, three games were developed. The paper describes the co-creation process and the plans for validating the games and the online platform where they will be placed together with other technical and pedagogical resources.