266 Chapter 6 previous results (Poppelaars, Lichtwarck-Aschoff, et al., 2018), we expected elevated depressive symptoms to predict a greater increase in affect and to predict less competence in participants who select the mental health game over the entertainment game. For anxiety, stress and the remaining dependent variables for depressive symptoms and symptom severity, no hypotheses were formulated. METHODS Participants In total 155 young adults (Mage = 21.48, SDage = 3.36) participated in this study between March and November 2017. Participants were only included in the analyses if they were unaware of the study’s aims and the fact that both trailers reflected the same game (n = 129). Participants included in the analyses were between 18 and 31 years old, with a mean age of 21.33 years (SD = 3.20). The majority of the participants was female 73.6%. Almost all participants were enrolled in or had completed higher education (91.5%), while some were enrolled in or had completed a pre-university track (7.0%). Two participants had completed unsegregated secondary education (1.6%). The majority of participants currently enrolled in education were enrolled in a social science track (76.9%). All participants were selected based on having at least mildly elevated mental health symptoms on at least one subscale of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21; Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995). Participants showed mildly elevated symptoms on one (41.9%), two (27.9%) or three (30.2%) subscales. At least a mildly elevated score on depression, anxiety or stress were shown by, respectively, 64.3%, 67.4%, and 56.6% of participants. Of the sample 31.8% had severe or extremely severe scores on at least one DASS-21 subscale. Although participants indicated that they were moderately positive about video games in general (Mliking = 4.50, SD = 1.75; on a 7-point scale with a higher score indicating a more positive attitude), 48.8% indicated not playing video games at all in an average week, with an additional 9.3% playing an hour or less per week. Almost a fifth of participants indicated playing video games more regularly (1–7 h a week; 18.6%) and almost a quarter of participants played more than 7 h a week (23.3%).
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