Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Roblox Video Game (Super U Story) in Improving Body Image Among Children and Adolescents in the United States - Randomized Controlled Trial

Aug 21, 2026

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Body dissatisfaction is a global public health concern affecting young people’s mental and physical well-being, creating an urgent need for early interventions. Microinterventions are promising, and gaming may support scalable delivery of body image content. This randomized controlled trial tested a purpose-built Roblox narrative adventure, Super U Story, evaluating its effects on state and trait body image outcomes and related measures among US children and adolescents, with acceptability and engagement assessed throughout.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

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Pages24

Reading Time1 h 0 min

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JOURNAL OF MEDICAL INTERNET RESEARCH Paraskeva et al Original Paper Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Roblox Video Game (Super U Story) in Improving Body Image Among Children and Adolescents in the United States: Randomized Controlled Trial | Nicole Paraskeva 1, BSc, MSc, DHealth, CPsychol; Sharon Haywood1, BSc, MSc; Jason Anquandah2, BSc, MSc, MRes, PhD; Paul White2, BSc, MSc, PhD; Mahira Budhraja 1, BSc, MSc; Phillippa C Diedrichs 1, BSc, PhD; Heidi Williamson 1, RN, BSc, MSc, DHealth, CPsychol | | --- | | 1Centre for Appearance Research, University ofthe West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom
2Department of Engineering, Design and Mathematics, University ofthe West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom
Corresponding Author:
Nicole Paraskeva, BSc, MSc, DHealth, CPsychol Centre for Appearance Research
University ofthe West of England Coldharbour Ln, Stoke Gifford
Bristol
United Kingdom Phone: 44 1173287657
[Email:](Email: nicole.paraskeva@uwe.ac.uk)[ ](Email: nicole.paraskeva@uwe.ac.uk)[nicole.paraskeva@uwe.ac.uk](Email: nicole.paraskeva@uwe.ac.uk)
Abstract | Background: Body dissatisfaction is a global public health issue negatively impacting young people’s mental and physical well-being, underscoring an urgent need to develop early interventions. Emerging evidence suggests that microinterventions are acceptable and effective in delivering mental health interventions. Given the popularity of video games among young people, gaming holds great promise for body image microinterventions. As such, we developed Super U Story, a stand-alone, self-paced, narrative-based adventure video game for the popular gaming platform Roblox grounded in the Tripartite Influence Model of body dissatisfaction and basic tenets of positive body image. Objective: This trial evaluated the effectiveness of playing a purpose-built Roblox video game once on US children and adolescents’ state and trait body image and related outcomes. Gameplay was capped at 30 minutes. Methods: Overall, 1059 US-based girls and boys (n=460, 43.4% girls) aged 9 to 13 years (mean age 10.9, SD 1.36 years) from diverse ethnic, socioeconomic, and geographic backgrounds were recruited online via a research agency into a 3-arm, online, parallel randomized controlled trial. Participants were assigned to an intervention group, active control group (a Roblox game called Rainbow Friends 2 Story [Color Story]), or attention control group (web-based word search) . Participants completed self-report assessments at baseline (1 week before the intervention and before randomization), immediately before and after intervention testing, and 1 week after the intervention. Outcomes included state measures of body satisfaction (primary outcome), mood, and body functionality and trait measures of body esteem, body appreciation, internalization of appearance ideals, and social media literacy. Data were evaluated using repeated-measure analysis of covariance controlling for baseline. Engagement and acceptability data were collected. Results: Intervention participants showed improved state body satisfaction (F1,694=5.20; P=.02; ηp2=0.01) relative to the active control but not in comparison to the attention control. State mood, state body functionality, internalization of appearance ideals, and social media literacy showed no effects. Relative to the intervention group, the active control showed improved trait body esteem (F1,663=5.40; P=.02; ηp2=0.01) and body appreciation (F1,663=6.08; P=.01; ηp2=0.01) . Exploratory analyses found that age and gender did not moderate the effects. We were unable to examine dose-response effects. Acceptability scores were good. Self-report engagement data suggested that participants experienced a highly variable and often low-dose exposure. Conclusions: This large-scale, fully powered trial is the first to assess the effectiveness of a Roblox-based body image intervention, demonstrating the potential for disseminating microinterv

FAQs

What intervention was tested in the study?

The trial evaluated Super U Story, a stand-alone, self-paced narrative adventure video game built on the Roblox platform.

How was the trial designed and how long was gameplay?

Participants were assigned in a 3-arm, online, parallel randomized controlled trial, and gameplay was capped at 30 minutes.

Did playing Super U Story improve body image outcomes?

Participants showed improved state body satisfaction versus the active control, with no effects on several other state measures; acceptability was good but dose-response effects could not be examined.

Aug 21, 2026

Upload by Ophelia