Investigating the Effectiveness of Playing Digital Games for Relieving Psychological Stress

Digital games are increasingly seen as a positive influence in people’s lives. Evidence suggests digital games can alleviate psychological stressors. This thesis focuses specifically on daily or minor stressors such as such as missing a bus or spilling coffee on a clean shirt rather than major life stress events. Psychological stress is conceptualised as a dynamic interaction between individuals and their environment, where perceived demands exceed coping resources. Given the close relationship between stress and anxiety the thesis explores how gameplay might help regulate both. To address this, two surveys and four experimental studies were conducted.

The first survey examined whether gaming motivation relates to perceived stress, using the Video Game Pursuit (VGPu) scale and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). While individuals often played games when stressed, motivation alone did not strongly predict stress relief. A second survey explored gameplay experiences using the Challenge Originating from Recent Gameplay Interaction Scale (CORGIS) and Game User Experience Satisfaction Scale (GUESS-18), again finding only weak correlations with perceived stress.

Given the limited survey evidence, four experiments were conducted to measure whether playing games reduces acute stress more than non-game tasks, and whether immersion matters. Stress responses were measured using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for stress. The four experiments looked at differences in stress and anxiety between playing a game and non-game activities as well as whether the level of immersion in the games also had an effect.

Overall, the results suggest that psychological engagement with gameplay, rather than immersion level alone, is key to reducing acute stress. While survey studies indicated small correlations between gaming motivations and stress, experimental findings provide evidence that playing games can significantly reduce acute stress when compared to non-gaming activities.