As anxiety disorders continue to affect a growing number of adolescents, researchers are exploring whether a therapeutic video game can help teens strengthen the attention skills commonly taught in conventional therapy.
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Eco-Rescue is a therapeutic video game built to strengthen attention control in teenagers, training the brain to focus, filter distractions and respond more effectively to stress. Players take on the role of pilots restoring damaged environments, tracking moving objects, adapting to unexpected changes and managing multiple tasks at once, with difficulty rising as they progress.
Researchers at FIU’s Center for Children and Families, in collaboration with the University of Geneva, are studying whether that gameplay can ease anxiety symptoms. “Adolescents are already spending a lot of time engaging with digital media,” said Jeremy Pettit, psychology professor and executive director of the center. “This project allows us to meet them where they are while delivering an intervention grounded in science.”
FIU is the first U.S. site testing Eco-Rescue in a clinical trial, recruiting 50 adolescents ages 11 to 15, with 150 participants expected across all research sites. Teens are placed in three groups, one playing Eco-Rescue at home, another playing a different video game without attention-training components and a third using no game during the six-week study.
Those assigned to Eco-Rescue complete about 30 minutes of gameplay four days a week, roughly 12 hours total. Researchers will then measure changes in attention control, emotional regulation and anxiety symptoms. “This study is testing a new generation of attention-based treatment,” Pettit said. “If it proves effective, it could offer adolescents another option for managing anxiety in their daily lives.”
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The 11-to-15 focus is intentional because anxiety disorders frequently begin in early adolescence, a period when the brain is still developing and may be especially responsive to targeted interventions. Pettit’s earlier work suggests that improving attention control may help ease anxiety symptoms, even for some teens who have not benefited from traditional treatments.
Unlike therapeutic games built for challenges such as ADHD, Eco-Rescue was designed around the specific cognitive processes tied to anxiety rather than broad brain training. The University of Geneva team contributes expertise in cognitive training and game design, while FIU brings its experience running clinical trials and studying anxiety in young people, Pettit said.
Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent emotional disorders in adolescents, according to 2025 data from the World Health Organization. An estimated 4.1 percent of 10-to-14-year-olds and 5.3 percent of 15-to-19-year-olds experience an anxiety disorder, and they are more common in older adolescents than younger ones.
Depression affects an estimated 1.3 percent of adolescents ages 10 to 14 and 3.4 percent of those ages 15 to 19, and it shares symptoms with anxiety including rapid and unexpected mood changes, WHO reports. The organization notes that anxiety and depressive disorders “can profoundly affect school attendance and schoolwork,” that social withdrawal can worsen isolation and loneliness, and that depression can lead to suicide.
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This story was originally published August 9, 2026 at 11:00 AM.