Video Game Play to Alleviate Adolescent Anxiety

The SCARED-C is a 41 items self-report anxiety questionnaire with subscales measuring General Anxiety Disorder, Social Phobia Disorder, Panic Disorder, Separation Anxiety Disorder and School Avoidance. Participants are asked to rate each statement, referring to the past four weeks, on a scale ranging from 0 (Not True or Hardly Ever True) to 2 (Very True or Often True). A score of 25 or higher may indicate the presence of an Anxiety Disorder. Analysis of primary outcome will be based on this total score.

The UFOV is a computerized divided attention task where participants have to identify whether a briefly flashed smiley presented at the center of the screen has short or long hair and detect on which of the eight cardinal directions was a peripheral target stimulus presented, while ignoring other distractors. The presentation time is made shorter (more difficult) or longer (less difficult) according to a 3-down-1-up staircase. The task stops after 8 reversals or 72 trials, whichever happens first. Performance is measured by the mean presentation time of the last 5 trials (expressed in milliseconds). The task measures the efficiency of divided visual attention in the presence of visual distractors.

The TOVA is a computerized task where participants press a response key when presented with a visual stimulus in the upper part of the screen (go trials) and refrain from responding if flashed in the lower part of the screen (no-go trials). A first block evaluates sustained attention and a second impulsivity. In the sustained attention, go trials represent 25% of the trials; in the impulsivity block, go trials represent 75% of the trials.

The MOT is a computerized task in which participants are presented 16 yellow smileys moving freely within a circular area. During the first two seconds of each trial, a subset of these items is flagged as targets by being blue. Participants are instructed to track these blue smileys even though they turn back to yellow and become indistinguishable from the other items. After a few seconds, the items stop moving, one item is highlighted, and participants respond whether this item was initially flagged blue or not. MOT performance is measured as the percentage of correct responses (i.e. accuracy) in trials with 3, 4, 5 and 6 targets independently and combined overall. Higher accuracy score indicates better task performance. This task requires not only selecting targets amongst distractors but also dividing one's attention among these moving targets. Furthermore, it requires sustaining attention for a few seconds, necessitating both sustained attention and visuo-spatial working memory.

The ABDS is a computer-based task where participants are presented with digits (for 1500 ms) one after the other, and asked to recall them in reverse order. These are presented on a background of either neutral or affective images, in two different blocks, to manipulate valence. The images are sourced from the Geneva Affective Picture Database. In each trial, participants are presented with a series of single digits [0-9]. The length of the series to recall is increased or decreased by one digit depending on previous trial performance according to a 1-up-1-down staircase. No feedback is provided. After two reversals the block stops. Span is estimated for each block as the maximum correct length recalled. The span difference between the neutral versus affective blocks is an index of the individual ability to implement control in the face of affective distraction

The CERQ is a 36-item self-report measure that captures stable-dispositional cognitive emotion regulation strategies when people experience stressful or threatening life experiences. Specifically, the following strategies are measured: Self-blame, blaming others, acceptance, refocusing on planning, positive refocusing, rumination, positive reappraisal, putting into perspective, and catastrophizing. Each subscale comprises 4 items and uses a 5-point scale (1 = almost never, 5 = almost always); the range of scores for each subscale is 4-20. Analysis of change will be based on the total score. A higher score represents greater use of cognitive coping strategies.

The ACS is a 20-item self-report questionnaire designed to measure the construct of attention focusing and attention shifting. 20 items are rated on a 4-point Likert Scale from 1 (almost never) to 4 (always). Respondents rate items according to their experience in the past 4 weeks. Analysis of change will be based on the total score and on scores of each subscale. A lower score indicates higher attentional control abilities.

The PHQ-8 is designed to assess symptoms of depression. Participants are asked to indicate the frequency of experiencing eight specific problems or symptoms over the course of the past four weeks. (e.g., "feeling down, depressed, or hopeless," "feeling tired or having little energy,"). Each item is rated 0 (not at all), 1 (several days), 2 (more than half the days), or 3 (nearly every day). Analysis of change will be based on the total score. A higher score indicates higher depressive symptoms.

Sleep: "During the past week, how would you rate your sleep quality overall. This question is rated from 1 (very poor) to 5 (very good).

Positive mood: "How much have you experienced positive mood in the past week?" This question is rated from 1 (not at all) to 5 (extremely).

Negative mood: "How much have you experienced negative mood in the past week?" This question is rated from 1 (not at all) to 5 (extremely).

"During the past week I worried a lot." This item is rated 0 (not true), 1 (somewhat true), or 2 (true), and was taken from the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (item 8 from the emotional problems scale, Goodman et al. 1998).