Explicit Mental Health Messaging Promotes Serious Video Game Selection in Youth With Elevated Mental Health Symptoms

The role of mental well-being in the effects of persuasive health messages: A scoping review

Emerging evidence in health communication and psychology suggests that a) exposure to specific persuasive health messages can have unintended effects on the mental well-being of recipients and b) recipients' mental well-being before exposure can influence message processing. Available evidence regarding the relationship between mental well-being and exposure to specific health messages lacks consistency and is scattered across different fields. This scoping review of 24 publications summarizes what is known about mental health effects in health communication and provides a research agenda for future work. Among others, key findings suggest that particularly negative emotional appeals may have broad, negative effects on indicators of hedonic well-being. Further, humor and gain appeals may positively impact mental well-being, although positive message features are strongly understudied in this space. Lower mental well-being prior to message exposure may impact message processing, but not necessarily message effectiveness. We find that potential well-being effects of health communication have been largely ignored, especially outside the realm of mental health research. Yet, initial evidence does underline the importance of such inquiry. This review summarizes initial evidence of systematic, unintended effects of health messaging on mental well-being and highlights fruitful avenues for future work in this space.

Learning behavior in augmented reality–mediated mobile game–based learning

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate whether the effects of children's current learning are related to their learning efficiency and behavior when they are exposed to two different gaming media.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper the authors used a quasi-experimental design to determine whether game-based learning can be improved by using mobile devices equipped with augmented reality (AR).

Findings

The control group using the card game was careful to find the correct answer, with the intention of “obtaining the maximum score with the highest rate of correctness,” whereas the experimental group using the AR board game played aggressively by “obtaining the maximum score with the highest number.”

Research limitations/implications

Although integrating an AR board game into the curriculum is an effective approach, the need to implement such a game in response to different learning attitudes and behaviors of students should be addressed.

Practical implications

Depending on the learning situation, different teaching methods and aids can be used to help students effectively learn. The recommendations based on this experiment can broaden the teaching field and allow for a wider range of experimental studies.

Originality/value

Learning behavior was observed, and user attention was interpreted using MindWave Mobile.

Therapeutic use of serious games in mental health: scoping review

BACKGROUND

There has been an increase in the development and application of serious games to support management of mental ill health, but their full impact is unclear.

AIMS

Evaluation of the current evidence of acceptability and effectiveness of serious games in improving mental health disorders.

METHOD

A PRISMA-guided scoping review was conducted, using a predefined criteria and a relevant word combination on three databases: EMBASE, Medline and PsycINFO. Each included study was examined for game format, study type, number of participants, basic demographics, disorder targeted, recruitment, setting, control conditions, duration and follow-up, study attrition, primary outcomes and their results. Each study was given a Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations rating for quality.

RESULTS

Fourteen out of 513 studies met the inclusion criteria. The serious games focused on symptoms of anxiety (n = 4), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (n = 3), depression (n = 2), schizophrenia (n = 2), alcohol use disorder (n = 2) and bipolar disorder (n = 1). There were multiple significant outcomes favouring serious games across conditions covered in the review. Study quality varied, with studies rated high (n = 3), moderate (n = 6), low (n = 3) and very low (n = 2).

CONCLUSIONS

The available evidence suggests that serious games could be an effective format for an intervention to reduce mental health symptoms and improve outcomes of individuals. Better designed studies would further develop confidence in this area. This is a potential vehicle of change to deliver some of the much-needed psychiatric support to both economically developed and developing regions in a resource-utilitarian manner. Partnerships between the gaming industry, researchers and health services may benefit patients.

The Effect of Expectations on Experiences and Engagement with an Applied Game for Mental Health

Objective: Applied games are considered a promising approach to deliver mental health interventions. Nonspecific factors such as expectations and motivation may be crucial to optimize effectiveness yet have not been examined so far. The current study examined the effect of expectations for improvement on (1) experienced fun and positive affect, and (2) in-game play behaviors while playing MindLight, an applied game shown to reduce anxiety. The secondary aim was to examine the moderating role of symptom severity and motivation to change.

Materials and Methods: Fifty-seven participants (47 females; 17–21 years old) preselected on anxiety symptoms viewed a trailer in which MindLight was promoted as either a mental health or an entertainment game. These trailers were used to induce different expectations in participants. Participants subsequently played the game for 60 minutes. Before playing, participants filled out questionnaires about their general anxiety symptoms, motivation to change, state anxiety, affect, and arousal. While playing, in-game behaviors and galvanic skin response (GSR) were recorded continuously. After playing, state anxiety, affect, and arousal were measured again as well as experienced fun.

Results: Participants in both trailer conditions showed increases in state anxiety, arousal, and GSR. Expectations did not influence experienced fun and positive affect, nor in-game behaviors. In addition, no moderation effects of motivation to change and symptom severity were found.

Conclusion: Experiences and engagement with MindLight were not influenced by expectations, motivation to change, and symptom severity. For future research, it is recommended to examine individual differences in these effects, and long-term and more distal outcomes and processes.