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Stress-Reducing Effects of Playing a Casual Video Game among Undergraduate Students
To assess the potential effectiveness of playing a simple, casual video game (Flower) in reducing stress relative to participating in a mindfulness-meditation session (body scan) among undergraduate students. Eighty undergraduate student participants (mean age = 19.46 years, SD = 1.43; gender: 48 fe...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Springer International Publishing
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7952082/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s43076-021-00062-6 |
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author | Desai, Veeral Gupta, Arnav Andersen, Lucas Ronnestrand, Bailey Wong, Michael |
author_facet | Desai, Veeral Gupta, Arnav Andersen, Lucas Ronnestrand, Bailey Wong, Michael |
author_sort | Desai, Veeral |
collection | PubMed |
description | To assess the potential effectiveness of playing a simple, casual video game (Flower) in reducing stress relative to participating in a mindfulness-meditation session (body scan) among undergraduate students. Eighty undergraduate student participants (mean age = 19.46 years, SD = 1.43; gender: 48 females, 29 males, 3 preferred not to answer) were assigned to one of two groups in alternating order: one who played Flower and the comparison group who participated in a body scan, each lasting 20 min. Psychological and physiological stress measurements were made before and after each intervention. Self-perceived psychological stress was measured using a modified version of the nine-item Psychological Stress Measure (PSM-9), and physiological stress (heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure) was measured using an electronic blood-pressure cuff. The results were analyzed with a 2 (measurement: pre, post) × 2 (intervention: video game, mindfulness-meditation) mixed model analysis of variance (ANOVA) for each of the four outcome measures. There was a statistically significant reduction (pre- to post-intervention) across all outcome measures. Notably, there was a significant measurement × intervention interaction (p < .001) for the psychological stress measure; participants in the mindfulness-meditation group reported greater stress reduction after the intervention than participants in the video game group. Although these results suggest mindfulness-meditation provides a slight advantage for stress reduction than casual video games, the similarity in reduction across all physiological measures between the two interventions nevertheless suggests casual video games may also be an effective medium. This finding is especially promising given casual video games’ accessibility, ease of use, and popularity among students. These results may inform initiatives by colleges and universities to better support students during peak times of stress and especially during the current COVID-19 pandemic. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7952082 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Springer International Publishing |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-79520822021-03-12 Stress-Reducing Effects of Playing a Casual Video Game among Undergraduate Students Desai, Veeral Gupta, Arnav Andersen, Lucas Ronnestrand, Bailey Wong, Michael Trends in Psychol. Original Article To assess the potential effectiveness of playing a simple, casual video game (Flower) in reducing stress relative to participating in a mindfulness-meditation session (body scan) among undergraduate students. Eighty undergraduate student participants (mean age = 19.46 years, SD = 1.43; gender: 48 females, 29 males, 3 preferred not to answer) were assigned to one of two groups in alternating order: one who played Flower and the comparison group who participated in a body scan, each lasting 20 min. Psychological and physiological stress measurements were made before and after each intervention. Self-perceived psychological stress was measured using a modified version of the nine-item Psychological Stress Measure (PSM-9), and physiological stress (heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure) was measured using an electronic blood-pressure cuff. The results were analyzed with a 2 (measurement: pre, post) × 2 (intervention: video game, mindfulness-meditation) mixed model analysis of variance (ANOVA) for each of the four outcome measures. There was a statistically significant reduction (pre- to post-intervention) across all outcome measures. Notably, there was a significant measurement × intervention interaction (p < .001) for the psychological stress measure; participants in the mindfulness-meditation group reported greater stress reduction after the intervention than participants in the video game group. Although these results suggest mindfulness-meditation provides a slight advantage for stress reduction than casual video games, the similarity in reduction across all physiological measures between the two interventions nevertheless suggests casual video games may also be an effective medium. This finding is especially promising given casual video games’ accessibility, ease of use, and popularity among students. These results may inform initiatives by colleges and universities to better support students during peak times of stress and especially during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Springer International Publishing 2021-03-11 2021 /pmc/articles/PMC7952082/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s43076-021-00062-6 Text en © Associação Brasileira de Psicologia 2021 This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. |
spellingShingle | Original Article Desai, Veeral Gupta, Arnav Andersen, Lucas Ronnestrand, Bailey Wong, Michael Stress-Reducing Effects of Playing a Casual Video Game among Undergraduate Students |
title | Stress-Reducing Effects of Playing a Casual Video Game among Undergraduate Students |
title_full | Stress-Reducing Effects of Playing a Casual Video Game among Undergraduate Students |
title_fullStr | Stress-Reducing Effects of Playing a Casual Video Game among Undergraduate Students |
title_full_unstemmed | Stress-Reducing Effects of Playing a Casual Video Game among Undergraduate Students |
title_short | Stress-Reducing Effects of Playing a Casual Video Game among Undergraduate Students |
title_sort | stress-reducing effects of playing a casual video game among undergraduate students |
topic | Original Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7952082/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s43076-021-00062-6 |
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