Game Intervention for Resilience

A Randomized Controlled Trial to Examine the Impact of a Game-based Intervention in Promoting Positive Affectivity and Enhancing Psychological Resilience

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if a game-based intervention can enhance psychological resilience and promote positive affectivity in adults who have experienced major life stress.

The main questions it aims to answer are:

• Does the game-based intervention improve positive affectivity and mental health compared to a waitlist control group immediately after the intervention and at 3-month follow-up?
• Are the mental health benefits of the game-based intervention mediated by improvements in positive affectivity over time?

Researchers will compare the game-based intervention to an active control group and a waitlist control group to see if the game leads to better emotional and mental health outcomes.

Participants will:

• Be randomly assigned to the game-based intervention group, the psychoeducation intervention group (as active control group), or the waitlist control group
• Engage with the assigned program for 10 days within two weeks
• Complete psychological assessments before and after the intervention, and again at 3-month follow-up

Inclusion Criteria:

• fluency in oral and written Cantonese or Mandarin;
• having experienced at least one major life stress in the recent 5 years (assessed by the Life Stress Index);
• normal or corrected-to-normal vision and hearing.

Exclusion Criteria:

• formal diagnosis of any major psychiatric illnesses or history of suicidal behaviour;
• major physical illness, neurological condition or traumatic brain injury;
• Intake of medication within the previous 6 months that may affect emotion or cognitive functions;
• pregnancy (for women);
• prior experience with any commercial computer repair simulation game.