236 Chapter 5 The effect of expectations on players’ experiences and in-game engagement may be moderated by two additional nonspecific factors, namely motivation to change (i.e., individuals’ willingness to change symptoms or problems they are experiencing; Prochaska & DiClemente, 1982) and symptom severity. An individual more motivated to change mental health symptoms and/ or experiencing more (severe) symptoms may find an applied game with an explicit mental health aim more personally relevant, possibly leading to higher engagement with the therapeutic techniques and a more positive experience of the game (i.e., experienced fun and affect; Buday, 2015; Dean et al., 2016; Oliver & Krakowiak, 2009). On the other hand, however, it might be that individuals with more (severe) symptoms engage less with the therapeutic techniques as they may fear unwanted confrontation with their mental health problems (e.g., a game aimed at emotion and stress management may imply confrontations with negative emotions and stress for some individuals; Poppelaars, LichtwarckAschoff, et al., 2018). The secondary aim of the current study was to examine the moderating role of motivation to change and symptom severity. Design of the Present Study In the current study, we used the applied game MindLight, designed to reduce anxiety symptoms among youth (GainPlay Studio, 2014; PlayNice Institute, 2014). Previous research has compared MindLight to a cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) based indicated prevention program in children (7 to 12 years old) (Schoneveld et al., 2018) and to online CBT-based psychoeducation in adolescents (8 to 16 years old) (Tsui et al., 2021), finding evidence for its overall effectiveness. Previous research also suggests that both specific and nonspecific factors (expectations and motivation) play a role in MindLight (Schoneveld et al., 2016; Wols et al., 2018). Expectations for MindLight were experimentally manipulated by showing participants a teaser trailer, in which MindLight was promoted as a mental health game or as a regular entertainment game (Boot et al., 2013; Kazdin, 2005). The primary outcomes were experienced fun, positive affect, and ingame play behaviours. Because MindLight has been specifically designed to induce anxiety in order to train youth to regulate this anxiety (Schoneveld et al., 2018; Schoneveld et al., 2016), we also examined changes in (self-reported) state-anxiety and arousal. The study design, hypotheses and analyses were preregistered on the Open Science Framework (OSF; https://osf.io/6gmwv; Wols et al., 2019) and deviations from the planned methodology are uploaded on OSF (see https://osf.io/j7mvu/). Exploratory analyses were performed on changes in galvanic skin response (GSR; i.e., the small changes in the amount
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