FuturePrism: Supporting Adolescence in Collaborative Storytelling to Cope with Future Uncertainty

2026-02-26

AI Summary

This study addresses the challenge adolescents face in coping with future uncertainty due to underdeveloped executive functions, which often contributes to anxiety. Grounded in Snyder’s hope theory, it proposes an innovative interactive system that integrates generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) with collaborative storytelling. The system structures narratives into four thematic chapters—goals, opportunities, challenges, and agency—and incorporates a three-role-playing mechanism, providing cognitive scaffolding to help users externalize their thought processes and cultivate future-oriented hope. In an evaluation with 20 adolescents, the intervention significantly enhanced immediate hope levels, particularly in the agency dimension, while demonstrating high narrative immersion, strong usability, and fostering positive attitudes toward the future. These findings underscore the approach’s novel potential in supporting adolescents’ positive psychological development.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Game Design — Procedural Content Generation & Storytelling
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Computational Creativity
• Multiagent Systems: Multiagent Systems under Uncertainty

Application Category

• Social Networks and Social Media: Generative AI / large language models and their impact on social systems
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Economic ramifications for generative AI infrastructure and applications

Abstract

FuturePrism is a GenAI-empowered collaborative storytelling system designed to scaffold adolescents to navigate future life challenges. Adolescents often suffer from anxiety related to future uncertainty for lacking the executive function to develop concrete pathways. Operationalizing Snyder's Hope Theory, the system utilizes a triadic role-play mechanics to externalize cognitive processes through four narrative chapters: The Goal, The Opportunity, The Challenge, and The Agency. An evaluation workshop with 20 adolescents demonstrated that FuturePrism significantly enhances momentary hope levels, particularly in the Agency dimension. Participants reported high levels of narrative immersion and positive feedback towards system usability. Participants also confirmed that the AI-scaffolded collaborative storytelling empowered them to develop positive attitudes towards future challenges.

Problem

• future uncertainty
• adolescent anxiety
• executive function
• hope theory
• collaborative storytelling

Innovation

• Generative AI
• Collaborative Storytelling
• Hope Theory
• Adolescent Mental Health
• Cognitive Scaffolding