Video Game Play to Alleviate Adolescent Anxiety

Part of paid clinical trials in Miami, Florida.

Sponsor
School of Health Sciences Geneva
Study ID
NCT05923944
Status
Recruiting
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Conditions

  • Anxiety
  • Anxiety Disorders and Symptoms

Eligibility Criteria

Sex
ALL
Age
11 Years - 15 Years
Healthy Volunteers
Accepted

Interventions

  • Eco-Rescue — BEHAVIORAL
    Ecorescue is a gamified adaptation of the multiple object tracking task (MOT) combined with a detection task. It requires to track the spatial position of specific moving targets among visually similar moving distractors, while at the same time detecting briefly flashed events. It was designed to load on attentional control and visuo-spatial working memory. Additionally, targets may express various facial emotions (happy, angry or neutral) requiring some emotional control in addition to attentional control.
  • Bejelewed 3 — BEHAVIORAL
    Bejeweled 3 is a commercially available puzzle video game developed and edited by PopCap Games. The main objective is to swap two adjacent gems of seven colors to create a line or row of 3 or more gems of the same type. When these gems are aligned, they disappear, and points are earned. The goal is to get as many points as possible until it is impossible to line up gems. Bejeweled 3 offers a variety of game modes that players can freely explore at their own pace, enhancing the overall enjoyment and providing increased variability during each gaming session. These game modes typically have shorter durations, with a single game usually lasting less than 5 minutes. Bejeweled 3 was chosen as it requires fewer attentional resources compared to Eco-Rescue and because it was reported to reduce stress and anxiety in adult samples (Russoniello et al. 2009, 2013).

Study Details

Adolescence is a critical period for the onset and maintenance of anxiety disorders, which raises the importance of intervening early; one possibility of doing so is via digital interventions. At least two lines of research have been explored in the past years in this area. First, studies have tested the anxiolytic effects of casual video games, hypothesizing that, through the induction of flow, these games can effectively distract individuals from anxiety-related thoughts and feelings. Second, the bidirectional link between poor attentional control and higher anxiety has led to the design of novel interventions aiming to improve attentional control such as working memory training studies. Importantly, action video games, classified as a distinct gaming genre, have been shown to enhance attentional control. In this study, we aim to compare the effects of action video game play and casual game play to a no-training group, assessing their potential to alleviate anxiety when delivered entirely online. The goal of this three- arms randomized controlled trial is to evaluate the feasibility of a 6-week video game training intervention to reduce adolescent anxiety-related symptoms. We will also examine the efficacy of the proposed treatment when entirely deployed at adolescents' home.

Key Dates

First listed
Jun 28, 2023
Start date
Jun 1, 2024
Status verified
Sep 2026
Primary completion
Oct 31, 2027
Completion
Oct 31, 2027

Study Design

Enrollment
150 participants (estimated)
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE

Arms

  • Experimental: Eco-Rescue - Attentional Control - intervention
    The Eco-Rescue training intervention will be delivered through a dedicated video game installed on each participant's personal computer through the Steam platform, following a recommended training regimen of 30 minutes per day, 4 days per week for 6 weeks, for an expected total training duration of 12 hours.
  • Experimental: Bejeweled 3 - Casual gaming - intervention
    The Bejeweled 3 training intervention will be delivered through a dedicated video game installed on each participant's personal computer through the Steam platform, following a recommended training regimen of 30 minutes per day, 4 days per week for 6 weeks, for an expected total training duration of 12 hours.
  • No Intervention: No-training intervention
    The No-training intervention group does not involve any specific training program. Instead, participants assigned to this group will receive weekly phone calls, similar to the other groups, to answer the same questions as the other groups concerning their mental and emotional states and maintain regular contact throughout the 6-week study duration.

Primary Outcome Measure

Anxiety assessed through the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders Child Version (SCARED-C; Birmaher et al. 1999) [ Time Frame: Change from baseline (T1) at 1 week after training completion (T2), and at 4 months after training completion (T3) ]

Central Contacts

Locations (1)

FacilityCityStateZIPSite coordinators
Center for Children and FamiliesMiamiFlorida33199
Jeremy Pettit Pr, PhD
[email protected]
305-348-1671
Jeremy Pettit, PhD (PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR)

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By research site
Center for Children and Families· Miami, FL

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