Social Anxiety Strategies Through Gaming

Abstract

Anxiety and depression cases have trebled within the last decade [1], with diagnoses of social anxiety disorder increasing the most. With such an escalation in care needed, and the ever-struggling mental health service, a new approach to affective mental health options is imperative. The aim of this research was to highlight common, mainstream video games as potential strategies for those struggling with social anxiety disorder, and to understand how these games help sufferers. This was displayed by demonstrating themes in games that those with social anxiety disorder played. The study used a participation selection model mixed method approach utilising the Leibowitz social anxiety scale to invite participants with high social anxiety scores back to interview. Firstly, quantitative results showed that the Leibowitz Social Anxiety Scale maintains reliability in detecting those at risk of clinical diagnoses, being able to significantly predict a clinical diagnosis from a higher score, with younger age groups showing more risk, though this latter finding was a statistically non-significant trend. Qualitative findings showed four main themes were identified when carrying out thematic analysis: the day has been hard for mental health, short solo breaks of play, helping with mental health and growing as a person with game genres including colony or role-playing games. Future research suggests a move to a transdiagnostic approach to anxiety disorders with an early-stage intervention model utilising video games with the themes uncovered. This would aim to improve access to young adolescents and increase uptake of clinical mental health provisions while offering self-directed care in the first instance.