Feasibility of a Meditation Video Game to Reduce Anxiety in College Students

A brief pilot study tested Meditation Deathmatch, an open-source meditation video game, with 42 U.S. undergraduate students aged 18-20. After a single session, participants showed significant decreases in state anxiety and consistent improvements in game score across trials. They also rated the game's usability highly. The findings suggest that game-based meditation training may be an effective way to encourage meditation practice and reduce anxiety, warranting further comparison with traditional methods and potential use in treating anxiety disorders.

Study at a glance

Abstract

(1) Background: Meditation is a common intervention for college students suffering from issues with anxiety. Due to this popularity, several meditation-based video games have been released which can be used to supplement or motivate meditation practice. However, these tools are not often given scrutiny in a laboratory setting before being released to the public. Our lab conducted a brief feasibility pilot study to investigate Meditation Deathmatch, an open-source meditation video game aimed at stimulating meditation practice. Usability, and Efficacy were assessed to determine whether Meditation Deathmatch might provide an appropriate and effective means of introducing students to meditation. (2) Methods: 42 undergraduate students in the United States (ages 18-20, M = 18.69, SD= .57) played this game as part of a brief meditation session and completed both pre- and post-training measures of state anxiety as well as the System Usability Scale (SUS) and a short questionnaire assessing attitudes toward meditation. (3) Results: Participants who received training using Meditation Deathmatch showed significant post-training decreases in state anxiety and consistent and significant increases in game score across trials. These participants also reported high levels of Usability. (4) Conclusions: Game-based meditation training may be an effective tool for encouraging meditation practice. Further research may work to compare the effectiveness of game-based training to traditional methods and implement game-based meditation training in the treatment of patients with anxiety disorders.