Understanding Individual Differences in Mental Health and Video Games

With mental health diagnoses ever increasing in today's world and the services set out to provide help and care for them coming under ever increasing pressure from overuse, it is clear that a new approach is needed to help the numerous amounts of patients waiting for care. This research was setup to investigate the potential of video games and their benefits on mental health. This correlational design took survey responses from 200 participants and their responses to common mental health inventories and personality factors when asked in conjunction with their favourite video game. The data was used to build an understanding of what types of games might be associated with high or low scores across a variety of mental health, including anxiety and depression. Results showed that there were significant findings for games categorised as adventure and role playing, and that these showed associations with lower levels of anxiety, depression, and neuroticism scores, suggesting some ability to control for individual differences with more study. Future studies could aim to understand causal influences in the relationship between games and mental health, to allow for more access to care for patients.