Tomoiagă Cristina, David Oana
Evidence-Based Psychological Assessment and Interventions Doctoral School, Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Games Health J. 2022 Sep 6. doi: 10.1089/g4h.2021.0195.
College students` mental health is an international prioritized research subject. Dedicated interventions are constantly developed to be more suited, attractive, and effective and to reach as many students as possible. Our study aims to investigate the efficacy of an online game-based cognitive-behavioral therapy transdiagnostic intervention (REThink game) in reducing psychology students' distress. Our sample consisted of 139 students (mean age 26.27; 17 male students and 122 female students) who voluntarily enrolled in our study, and they were randomly assigned to 1 of our 3 groups (REThink game without guidance = 44; REThink game with guidance = 46; or care-as-usual control group = 49). They completed the pretest questionnaires (distress [negative functional and dysfunctional emotions], rational, and irrational cognitions), then they were offered to play the trial version of the REThink game, and after that, two specific levels focused on relaxation with mindfulness abilities, and on cognitive change emotion-regulation abilities. After completing the game, students in the REThink game with guidance received email support aimed to help them implement the skills learned in the game. Results showed medium effect size improvements for the REThink game without guidance group compared to the control group in terms of dysfunctional negative emotions and improvements in irrational cognitions for both experimental groups compared to the control group. So far, the REThink therapeutic game proved to be a promising innovative, efficient, and highly accessible intervention for helping students manage distress. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04763954.
大学生心理健康是国际上优先研究的课题。专门的干预措施不断发展，以使其更合适、更具吸引力且更有效，并覆盖尽可能多的学生。我们的研究旨在调查一种基于网络游戏的认知行为疗法跨诊断干预（REThink游戏）在减轻心理学专业学生困扰方面的效果。我们的样本包括139名学生（平均年龄26.27岁；17名男学生和122名女学生），他们自愿参加我们的研究，并被随机分配到我们的3个组中的1个组（无指导的REThink游戏组 = 44人；有指导的REThink游戏组 = 46人；或常规护理对照组 = 49人）。他们完成了预测试问卷（困扰[消极功能和功能失调情绪]、理性和非理性认知），然后被提供玩REThink游戏的试用版，之后是专注于通过正念能力放松以及认知改变情绪调节能力的两个特定关卡。完成游戏后，有指导的REThink游戏组的学生收到电子邮件支持，旨在帮助他们应用在游戏中学到的技能。结果显示，与对照组相比，无指导的REThink游戏组在功能失调的消极情绪方面有中等效应大小的改善，并且与对照组相比，两个实验组在非理性认知方面都有改善。到目前为止，REThink治疗游戏被证明是一种有前景的创新、高效且高度易获得的干预措施，可帮助学生应对困扰。试验注册：ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04763954。
