Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
John G. Ferreira
Abstract
overwhelmed by the rapid increase of students seeking mental health services on campus, and by
the growing severity of their reported mental health issues (Kitzrow, 2009). One type of
therapeutic approach utilized to help mitigate and prevent mental health crises of college
students is nurturing resiliency. Programs for nurturing college students’ resiliency can be
staff, or by means of independent self-help programs (Rose et al., 2013). The purpose of this
informal practice for nurturing resiliency among college students. The study will examine if
there are significant differences in resiliency between different types of college video gamers.
Some of the types of gamers classified include “heavy gamers” who play video games more than
twenty hours a week and “casual gamers” who play video games less than two hours a week.
The resiliency of individual gamers will be measured by 20 questions on a five-point Likert scale
answered through an anonymous online survey. The research study will be conducted by the
Research Question
The proposed study asks the following research question: Are there significant differences in
Hypothesis
The hypothesis of the proposed study is there are significant differences in resiliency
between different types of college video gamers. The resiliency of heavy gamers (μhg) will be
significantly greater than average (μag) and casual gamers (μcg). The resiliency of average
Null Hypothesis
The null hypothesis of the proposed study is that there are no differences in resiliency
among different levels of college video gamers. Heavy gamers, average gamers and casual
Project Abstract
This document is a sample IRB application created for coursework in a graduate class on
research and evaluation. This not an official IRB application form. The document contains
GAMING FREQUENCY AND RESILIENCY 4
mock sources and information. Any mock sources will have cites and references that start with
an asterisk (*).
Literature Review
Studies show that contemporary American college students more frequently utilize
mental health services and display more severe mental health symptoms than in the past.
Administrators and staff at colleges and universities have a responsibility to resolve this issue
(Kitzrow, 2009). The American College Health Association surveyed 83,070 undergraduate and
graduate college students across 113 schools. Seven and one-tenth percent reported giving
serious thought to suicide at least once within the past school year. In the same study, at least
once 38.8% reported feeling hopeless, 31.4% felt overwhelmed, and 31.7% felt mentally
exhausted. Also, 17% reported depression as a health issue (American College Health
Association, 2009).
To help students cope with their mental health issues, colleges offer various therapeutic
approaches on campus (Kitzrow, 2009). One type of intervention that has been researched to
help alleviate mental health issues in college students is nurturing the growth of resiliency and
coping skills, where students learn how to positively adapt their behaviors to thrive in
challenging situations (Houston et al., 2017). Resiliency can be defined as a value of how well
individuals can cope with stressful issues (Connor & Davidson, 2003). In a randomized,
controlled trial, undergraduate college students participated in a group resilience and coping
intervention. Post-therapy, participants reported feeling significantly more hopeful and less
stressed and depressed (Houston et al., 2017). In another randomized, controlled trial, graduate
student participants used a self-guided stress management and resilience training software
GAMING FREQUENCY AND RESILIENCY 5
program. Post-intervention the college students self-reported experiencing less stress and having
Interventions that promote resiliency and coping skills, by both mental health
practitioners and non-mental health staff, could be generally applied in practice for all students to
both help with mental health issues and prevent them (Houston et al., 2017). Stress management
and resilience training programs that are self-guided multimedia that college students can utilize
in private without the stigma of seeking mental health services could allow for broader
participation (Rose et al., 2013). Another possible private intervention for stress management
and resilience development could be playing video games (Russoniello, O’Brien, & Parks, 2009;
Research on playing video games has mostly focused on negative psychological health
effects, such as amplifying aggressive behaviors in players. However, research on the positive
psychological effects of video gaming has increased over the last decade (Jones, Scholes,
Johnson, Katsikitis, & Carras, 2014). Researchers have observed that one possible positive
psychological effect of playing video games is reducing stress (Russoniello et al., 2009; *Vega,
2012; *Yamazaki, 2014). A random, controlled study found that when participants played casual
video games their brain waves indicated an improved mood when compared to before playing.
Casual video games are games that are easy to learn and play with no previously practiced
abilities required and can be completed in a short time. The subjects (with an average age of 24)
also self-reported significantly reduced fatigue, anger, and tension, and large decreases in
depression after playing the video games (Russoniello et al., 2009). When reviewing the
literature, several studies found that playing other types of video games significantly reduced
stress and depression for young adults (*Vega, 2012; *Yamazaki, 2014).
GAMING FREQUENCY AND RESILIENCY 6
Along with reducing stress, video games may also nurture resiliency (Tichon & Mavin,
2017; Wyeth & Sweetster, 2005). The design of video games forces the players to experience
resiliency. A common enjoyment factor designed into the video game experience is having
players consistently given challenges when playing that both aggravate them for being tough
obstacles to overcome, but also give them joyful experiences from successfully completing the
Literature explains that video gamers experience resiliency due to the design of video
games, but very few studies have examined if playing video games actually increases an
individual’s resiliency. However, a qualitative study explored video game blog posts for
narratives of resiliency. The researchers found that many video game players described playing
video games as their main source for developing their holistic resiliency. Players describe video
games as training them to bounce back when failures or unplanned changes happen in their lives.
The purpose of this study is to further research if playing video games is a possible
private and public non-stigmatized intervention for enhancing college students’ resiliency. For
this research, video games will be defined as any game played on an electronic device. Statistics
show that playing video games would be an accepted intervention among college students
because 70% of college students play video games (*National Academic Advising Association,
2009). Exploratory qualitative research has found that individuals develop resiliency from
playing video games, but no quantitative research has been conducted to see if playing video
Along with no quantitative research being conducted for video games promoting
resiliency, no literature exists for how the frequency of playing video games effects resiliency.
GAMING FREQUENCY AND RESILIENCY 7
The research question posed is, are there significant differences in resiliency between different
types of college video gamers? The researcher hypothesizes that heavy college video gamers,
who in this study are defined as playing video games for 20 or more hours a week, will be
significantly more resilient than college video gamers that play for less hours a week.
The proposed study examines if video games can nurture resiliency in college students.
Nurturing resiliency is utilized to help treat and prevent mental health issues such as anxiety and
depression (Connor & Davidson, 2003; Houston et al., 2017). Literature discusses that the
contemporary American college campuses (Kitzrow, 2009). If playing video games develops
resiliency in individuals, video game playing could be applied to campus wellness programs as
Data Collection
An email will be sent to college students invited to participate in the study. The email
will have three sections. The top part will describe the study, who should participate, and any
possible compensation for participating. See Appendix C for the top section. The second section
will give adult informed consent notification. See Appendix B for the second section. Finally,
the email will have the link to the study for participation.
The first part of the study will be five survey questions asking about students’ video game
playing habits and interests to categorize each participant as heavy, average, or casual gamers.
See Appendix D for the list of questions asked. A “heavy gamer” will play 20+ hours a week and
select at least 5 titles from the list of last year’s bestselling video games they have played within
the last two years, and gaming will be their top activity for fun. Heavy gamers will be members
An “average gamer” will spend 2 – 20 hours a week playing video games, and gaming
will be their 2nd or 3rd top activity for fun. Average gamers will select less than 5 titles from the
list of last year’s bestselling video games they have played within the last two years. A “casual
gamer” will play 2 hours or less a week, and gaming will be their 4th or 5th top activity for fun, or
not a top 5 activity for fun. A casual gamer may select no titles from the list of last year’s
bestselling video games that they have played within the last two years.
After the gamer categorization questions, the 20-question resiliency survey will be
displayed to the participants. The 20 questions are to understand the participant’s measured
resiliency score with each question being a score on a five-point Likert Scale. After the
resiliency questions, four questions are displayed for participants to give general demographics
about themselves. All questions can be skipped. See Appendix A for the main resiliency survey
questions and demographics questions. Finally, the survey data will be submitted and collected
(via a submit button at the bottom of the survey), and a final screen will appear asking
participants if they want to be emailed data results of the study in the future. The final screen
will also ask if they would like to give an email to enter the drawing for one of twenty gift cards.
All survey data collected will be stored for seven years on encrypted cloud storage
will purchase the option for the data to be stored at 3 remote sites, allowing for duplication and
disaster recovery. The data engineer on the research team will create custom software for the
department that will export data records and any required statistics from the data. The gateway
connection between the Data visualizer and the data storage will be 128-bit encrypted.
GAMING FREQUENCY AND RESILIENCY 9
Research Personnel
No research personnel will be in direct contact with the participants. College student
participants will be sent an automated invite email to participate in the study. The research
personnel will be at minimum five members. The first member will be the graduate student
researcher, John Ferreira, who is a M.Ed. in Student Affairs Counseling candidate at Bridgewater
State University. He has been trained in proper empirical research and evaluation methods in the
field of Counseling. The study will be led by a doctorate-level faculty member from
quantitative research. A doctorate-level sociologist will be part of the research team, who is an
expert in gaming behavior, and can expertly profile individuals as heavy, average, or casual
gamers.
Software engineering experts will also join the team for software design and data
management. A data engineer from Google will be on the team to design and create the
software’s data collection and encryption, participant anonymity, and statistical analysis
automation. A web developer will design the various web pages for the research survey’s web
application and handle cloud hosting of the web application. All research team members outside
the Department of counseling of Bridgewater State University will sign a letter of cooperation.
There is a slight chance that the questions asked may make a participant realize that they
are addicted to video games or are not very resilient. These realizations may cause mild mental
trauma or anxiety. To mitigate the risk, a national 24/7 crisis hotline and text services will be
provided on the final screen of the survey. See Appendix E for the final screen displayed. If any
possible participant has concerns before taking the study they can reach out to one of the
GAMING FREQUENCY AND RESILIENCY 10
researchers. Researchers’ contact information will be presented on the consent form. See
Benefits to Participants
For the most part, there is no direct benefit to the participants. A possible benefit to the
participants may be becoming aware of their own personal resiliency through reflecting on their
There are benefits to society. If the results show that playing video games regularly
allows for development of resiliency, colleges and universities may directly apply these findings
by creating video game arcade rooms on campus. Currently, colleges have created programs
such as hikes, yoga sessions, and adult coloring for positively affecting the wellness and mental
health of college students. Having students participate in “gaming hours” as an offered campus
activity could possibly become another option to positively affect mental health and wellness.
The major benefit to the scientific community is a study explicitly showing that video
games are a significant factor for helping develop resiliency in individuals. If the hypothesis is
proven, further research could be explored to understand the exact mechanisms that make video
Study Timeline
The study is expected to take six months. The first three months will be spent working
with 20 universities to get administrative permission to email their students and get the email
lists. During these months, the software engineers will also build all the required software
systems. During the fourth month, the emails will be sent, and the survey will be open for
Funding Status
The study will be externally funded through a sponsorship donation from the Alphabet
Corporation. The funding from Alphabet will be used to pay the software engineers developing
the software, the other researchers, the cloud data storage and application hosting, and for the gift
cards. The American College Health Association will be working with the 20 institutions for
participant recruitment as a voluntary activity for the professional association’s student mental
health task force. A research collaboration agreement letter will be signed by both Alphabet and
the American College Health Association. In the letter’s contents the entities will agree the study
and its collected data is owned solely by Bridgewater State University. As part of the agreement
the research team will be required to write up a research study and submit for publishing. It
should be noted that the software development members of the research team will be employees
of Alphabet Corporation, who have been assigned to work on this research project.
Recruitment
All full-time or part-time enrolled college students aged 18+, from 20 geographically-
dispersed colleges of diverse classifications will be sent an email to participate in the survey.
Along with diversity in institutional type and geographic regions, all selected schools will have a
section on “creating a diverse student community” as part of their mission statements to allow
for full, diverse demographic representation of American college students. The geographic
regions the colleges come from include: Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest, South, and
Central. The classifications of the colleges include: Research University, Liberal Arts School,
Members of the American College Health Association will contact the health and
wellness centers of each college to get institutional administrative permission to send the email
GAMING FREQUENCY AND RESILIENCY 12
to enrolled students, and to get the lists of emails to send. All institutions affiliated with the
study will sign a letter of cooperation. All members of the American College Health Association
Under FERPA, general requests of email addresses are considered directory information.
No private records will be accessed. An estimated 100,000 college students will be invited to
join the study. To prevent coercion of participants, Bridgewater State University will not be one
of the 20 schools. See Appendix A for the demographic questions that will be asked at the end of
the survey.
Confidentiality
Students who participate in the study will be anonymized through the study’s online
software. When the student clicks the link in the email to participate in the study, they will visit
the study’s online web application with a 128-bit encryption. An algorithm will be run (from
encrypted binary code) on their college email address to create a non-translatable unique user
identifier (UUID) number. At this point the participant’s survey data record will be anonymized.
The UUID will be rejected if the record was already created to prohibit college students from
Compensation
Participants will be entered into a random drawing to win one of 20 $50 digital VISA gift
cards which will be sent to winners’ college email addresses as a gift for participating in the
research at the close of the survey participation period. The compensation is being used to
incentivize participants to take part in the study since college students are asked to take part in a
lot of studies. Every participant is not being compensated to prevent coercion of participation
GAMING FREQUENCY AND RESILIENCY 13
among non-gamers. Because the study takes around 15 minutes or less to complete,
Consent
Because adults are filling out an online anonymous survey with very few risks, and
informal electronic consent form was created. To allow for no semblance of coercion into taking
the study, the consent form stipulates participants will not gain any benefits from taking the
study. Any concerns possible participants of the study have been handled by giving the contact
information of one of the researchers to ask questions. The consent form spells out that the
survey will ask questions about participant’s resilience and gives an explicit example from the
survey. The form further describes the various parts of the survey (including the categorization
survey process). Possible participants will be able to comprehend what types of questions they
This survey will ask you questions about aspects of your personality to understand your
resilience. Please select one answer per question. At the end of the survey, we will also ask a
few questions about your general demographics. Thank you so much for your participation in
our research!
1) How often are you able to find the humorous side to events that happen in your life?
2) Do you agree with the statement, “I adapt to change that occurs in my life”?
3) Do you agree with the statement, “I have close, solid relationships with others in my
life”?
4) How often do you try to put your best effort into whatever it is you are working on?
5) When you have a problem, how often do you know where to turn for help?
6) Do you agree with the statement, “I can deal with whatever comes my way”?
7) How often do you believe that you can achieve your goals?
9) Do you agree with the statement, “Under pressure, I can think clearly to get things
done”?
10) How often do you feel you are in control of your life?
13) When you’re in a group that needs to solve a difficult problem, how often do you
take the lead?
15) Do you agree with the statement, “I am not easily discouraged by failure”?
17) Do you agree with the statement, “I always beat challenges, they don’t scare me”?
18) Do you agree with the statement “I avoid making difficult decisions”?
20) Do you agree with the statement “I failed, so I’ll never try again”?
Latin(x) ___ Native American ___ Other ___ Pacific Islander ___ White ___
Survey questions adapted from factors of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (Connor &
Davidson, 2003).
GAMING FREQUENCY AND RESILIENCY 17
You have been invited to participate in a survey that will ask questions about resilient aspects of
your personality (your preference for difficult problems, etc.). If you decide to participate in this
study, your participation will involve answering a few questions about your video game playing
habits and interest, followed by answering 20 scale-type questions about resilient aspects of your
personality. The survey should take no more than 15 minutes. Survey submissions will be
confidential and fully anonymized. Although you may not personally benefit, this study is
important to science and society for studying the personality traits of gamers. There are no
foreseeable risks, and you may refuse to answer any questions or withdraw from the study at any
time. Your confidentiality will be kept to the degree of anonymity being created by the
technology being used.
All participants in the study must be age 18 or over. At the completion of the study you will be
asked for an email address if you wish to enter in a drawing to win one of twenty VISA gift
cards. The email address will in no way be associated with your survey submission.
If you have any questions for concerns about the study, please feel free to reach out to John
Ferreira at Bridgewater State University (J14Ferreira@student.bridgew.edu)
If you are age 18 or over, and you agree to participate, please click on the link below to continue
to the survey. You will have the option to refuse to answer individual questions and may change
your mind and leave the study at any time without penalty.
GAMING FREQUENCY AND RESILIENCY 18
Do you play video games? We are researching your resilience from gameplay. It does
not matter if you casually play with friends on weekends or if you are a hardcore gamer
who competes in tournaments, we still want to hear from you! For giving us the 10 - 15
minutes required to complete the survey, we will also enter you in a drawing to win one
of 20 $50 VISA digital gift cards. And don’t worry, you will not be writing any essays or
paragraphs for this survey, leave that work for your classes.
GAMING FREQUENCY AND RESILIENCY 19
Let’s first find out a little bit about your gamer lifestyle and interests
1) On average, how many hours per week do you spend playing video games?
4) If you were to tell us your top five activities for fun (with one being your favorite
activity and five being the least favorite), what number would playing video games
be?
1 __ 2 __ 3 __ 4 __ 5 __ Gaming is not a Top Five activity for fun __
5) Tell us which of the following video games you have played in the last two years:
• __ Helix Jump
• __ Subway Surfers
• __ Marvel’s Spider-Man
• __ Far Cry 5
• __ NBA 2K19
GAMING FREQUENCY AND RESILIENCY 20
• __ Love Balls
• __ Mario Kart 8
• __ FIFA 19
• __Battlefield V
• __ [Other]
GAMING FREQUENCY AND RESILIENCY 21
Check the box if you wish to be emailed the results of the study upon its completion. [ ]
If you wish to be entered into the drawing to win one of twenty visa gift cards, please supply us
with an email address [ ________________________________________ ]
If you feel that you need to talk to someone after completing this study, below is a web resource
for finding mental health services for college students. Also listed are 24/7 free text and phone
crisis lines.
Ulifeline: http://www.ulifeline.org/
References
American College Health Association. (2009). National college health assessment spring 2008
reference group data report (abridged): The American College Health Association.
Connor, K. M., & Davidson, J. R. T. (2003). Development of a new resilience scale: The Connor-
Houston, J. B., First, J., Spialek, M. L., Sorenson, M. E., Mills-Sandoval, T., Lockett, M., …
Jones, C., Scholes, L., Johnson, D., Katsikitis, M., & Carras, M.C. (2014). Gaming well: Links
from https://doi-org.libserv-prd.bridgew.edu/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00260
Kitzrow, M. A. (2009). The mental health needs of today’s college students: Challenges and
Rose, R. D., Buckey, J. C., Zbozinek, T. D., Motivala, S. J., Glenn, D. E., Cartreine, J. A., &
management and resilience training program. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 51(2),
106–112.
GAMING FREQUENCY AND RESILIENCY 23
Russoniello, C. V., O’Brien, K., & Parks, J. M. (2009). The effectiveness of casual video games
2(1), 53-66.
Sweetser, P., & Wyeth, P. (2005). GameFlow: A model for evaluating player enjoyment in games.
Tichon, J. G., & Mavin, T. (2017). Experiencing resilience via video games: A content analysis
*Vega, L. (2012). Video games as a tool for stress reduction in young adults. Journal of
*Yamazaki, W. (2014). Positive effects observed among hardcore gamers. Journal of Electronic