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

TL;DR

FuturePrism is an AI-powered storytelling tool that helps adolescents cope with future uncertainty by enhancing hope and agency through collaborative narrative construction, showing positive effects on hope levels and attitudes.

Contribution

It introduces a novel AI-empowered storytelling system based on Snyder's Hope Theory to support adolescents in managing future anxiety.

Findings

Significantly increased hope levels, especially in the Agency dimension.

High narrative immersion and positive usability feedback.

Empowered adolescents to develop positive attitudes towards future challenges.

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.