Abstract
Acquired Brain Injury - otherwise known as ABI - affects approximately 13,000 people a year in Ireland. There is minimal literature available surrounding ABI and stigma; this research study attempts to provide empirical data within this realm. This study explores the effect of a between subject’s experimental design focused on mediating stigma around ABI. An experimental intervention implemented Kahoot! Software to develop an interactive quiz, it is hypothesised that gamification would result in more positive attitudes towards persons with an acquired brain injury. A revised version of the community attitudes towards mental illness (R- CAMI) scale was implemented to measure; benevolence, authoritarianism, community mental health ideology and social restrictiveness subscales. Participants (N=68) were randomly allocated to an experimental condition or a knowledge condition. The findings showed non-significance between knowledge and experimental groups on all four subscales (p= < .005). A multiple regression demonstrated that authoritarianism (β .782) and benevolence (β .711) were significant predictors of overall CAMI-R scale scores. Correlations demonstrated that overall scores were not significantly correlated with the level of fun or quiz scores. The analysis indicated that gamification did not result in more positive attitudes; participants scored positively on all four subscales. The findings suggest that psychoeducation is beneficial in promoting positive attitudinal outcomes using both knowledge condition and gamification condition. It is recommended that further research measures baseline attitudes pre-intervention in order to ascertain further information around stigma and acquired brain injury.
