6 289 EXPLICIT MESSAGING PROMOTES GAME SELECTION participants with elevated depressive symptoms to experience more positive affect, the game increased positive affect only for those youth who reported severe depressive symptoms. The current results replicate several of the findings from a previous study in which a mostly healthy sample of young adults were exposed to either a mental health or an entertainment-focused introduction message (Poppelaars, Lichtwarck-Aschoff, et al., 2018). Both studies show that mental health messaging does not influence intrinsic motivation and affect. Both studies also show that positive affect increased for those with (severe) depressive symptoms, while there was no change in affect for those without (severe) depressive symptoms (i.e., using SAM). Perhaps most importantly, the current findings extend the previous one by indicating that these effects are particularly relevant for youth with severe depressive symptoms. It is promising that those who are most affected by depressive symptoms show at least a short-term boost in positive affect. In general people with depressive symptoms report fewer positive experiences in their daily life (Peeters et al., 2003; Bylsma et al., 2011) and also have been shown to react with less positive affect to positive experiences in experimental settings (Bylsma et al., 2008). However, naturalistic studies show a mood-brightening effect in people with depressive symptoms, indicating that they may in fact be more sensitive to positive experiences in daily life and respond with more positive and less negative affect (Peeters et al., 2003; Bylsma et al., 2011). Thus, our results are in line with the mood-brightening effect in young adults with (severe) depressive symptoms. Temporary positive affect may partially explain why casual commercial games have been shown to reduce depressive symptoms (Russoniello et al., 2013). That is, according to the broaden-and-built theory, momentary positive emotions can create an upward spiral, broadening one’s perspective thus allowing one to seek out positive experiences, leading to more opportunities for positive emotions (Fredrickson, 2001). This upward spiral could eventually reduce depressive symptoms as depressed mood is replaced by a more positive mood. Just like for mood, messaging had no effect on competence. However, exploratory analyses indicated that participants with more severe symptoms experienced enhanced competence following gameplay. This may reflect that youth with severe symptoms selected either the entertainment or the mental health game based on their capacity to deal with their issues and felt competent in the selection they made. Moreover, Nezlek and Gable (2001) propose that mental health issues are associated with unstable self-worth which increases sensitivity to daily events that may reflect on self-worth.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTk4NDMw