Trial reportJournal of medical Internet research2025
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.
Trial report in Journal of medical Internet research, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT05669053 (Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Roblox Video Game for Children and Adolescents to Improve Body Image), which is not on this map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Roblox Video Game for Children and Adolescents to Improve Body Image: Randomised Controlled Trial
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The Use of Waivers of Guardian Permission in the United States for Pediatric Digital Health Intervention Research Since 2020: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Pooled it
- Body Image Disturbance and Body Dissatisfaction in Sisters of Adolescent Girls with Anorexia Nervosa: A Narrative Review and a Preliminary Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundBody 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.
objectiveThis 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.
methodsOverall, 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.
resultsIntervention participants showed improved state body satisfaction (F
conclusionsThis large-scale, fully powered trial is the first to assess the effectiveness of a Roblox-based body image intervention, demonstrating the potential for disseminating microinterventions to children and adolescents on large and popular commercial platforms. Overall, playing Super U Story did not cause harm; however, evidence is lacking to suggest that it improved body image. Learnings are discussed, including psychoeducation as an intervention technique, "chocolate-covered broccoli" phenomena (ie, losing players who recognize thinly disguised educational messages), and measuring intervention engagement.
trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT05669053; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05669053.
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