Source: The authors
Copyright: The authors
URL: https://games.jmir.org/2022/3/e37026/
License: CC-BY
SHANGHAI, China – Playing online coloring games promotes people’s mental well-being and reduces anxiety in the time of COVID-19 according to a study conducted by a joint research team of multiple universities. The study demonstrates that game companies and researchers can work together to do more when facing global crises.
The COVID-19 pandemic has threatened people’s physical health as well as their mental health. Distress, depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress syndrome, and insomnia are prevalent among people during the pandemic. Those negative psychological effects have even caused greater social harm than the virus itself and have spread to the postpandemic era. Conventional psychological interventions are undermined during this large-scale psychological disaster. Specifically, face-to-face psychological services are not routinely available in lockdown areas. Given the high prevalence of psychological distress, new intervention models are needed to ensure mental health services are accessible to the general population. Under these circumstances, online self-guided interventions have the advantages of overcoming spatial barriers and being accessible to a broad population.
During the pandemic, longer screen time and digital games became one of the most important entertainment activities, providing solid foundations for an online mental health intervention. In addition, there were an increasing number of game researchers and reports studying cognition and emotion.
Hence, the research team turned to digital games to address this issue at the peak of the global pandemic.
First, the research team used the commercially released coloring game Art Coloring – Coloring Book & Color by Number, developed by Shiyi Network (Boke Technology Co., Ltd Company), which has 1.5 million downloads, with over 80,000 daily active users worldwide. Researchers mainly considered the following 3 aspects: (1) coloring has been proven to reduce psychological distress and improve mood; (2) based on the existing game, players can directly access and avoid the entry and learning threshold of a new game; and (3) a large number of existing users facilitate the psychological intervention covering more people worldwide.
Second, the research team developed an online intervention package based on 4 evidence-based image types (awe, pink, nature, and blue). In previous studies, these types have been proven to have positive psychological effects.
Third, the research team conducted the study and intervention plan from January 29 to February 27, 2021. In total, 1390 players from 31 countries responded and completed at least 1 assessment.
As a result, the general intervention group showed a significantly greater statistical increase in subjective well-being (SWB) than the control group. Statistics showed the best effectiveness for the intervention group in the awe round. Besides, players who colored all four types of pictures had nearly significant improvements in SWB and a significant decrease in anxiety.
The study is the first to investigate the effect of an online coloring intervention on psychological well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. These data indicated the effectiveness of online psychological interventions such as coloring games on mental health during this specific period. Compared to the conventional forms of intervention, a game-based alternative may more easily evoke people’s interest. The online format, with its accessibility, entertainment potential, and public acceptability, is a practical approach to helping the general population during the pandemic.
Besides, the findings also implied that some interventions proven effective in reducing psychological distress in prepandemic times might maintain the level of distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, it should be noted that the study results of the online gamified coloring method for improving SWB and reducing anxiety may be underestimated during the pandemic.
Finally, the study showed that existing commercial games embedded with scientific psychological interventions fill the gap in mental crises and services for a wider group of people during the pandemic. The results will inspire innovations to prevent the psychological problems caused by public emergencies and encourage more games, especially the most popular ones, to take positive action against the common crises of humankind.
The article, Effect of an Online Coloring Game (Art Coloring) on Subjective Well-Being and Anxiety Reduction During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Development and Evaluation, is published in JMIR Serious Games at DOI: 10.2196/37026.
Media Contacts:
Manor Zhuang
manorzyuan@gmail.com
Original article:
Xi J, Gao Y, Lyu N, et al. Effect of an online coloring game (Art Coloring) on subjective well-being and anxiety reduction during the COVID-19 pandemic: development and evaluation. JMIR Serious Games. 2022;0(0):e0
URL: https://games.jmir.org/2022/0/e0/
doi: 10.2196/37026