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The Student Life Balance Game
Context
Student wellbeing is an increasing concern, with students in higher education often experiencing several lifestyle changes and challenges that can negatively affect their wellbeing. The new-found freedom and independence that comes with living on one’s own can put additional pressures on students’ finances and time management skills, where students need to learn, perhaps for the first time, to balance socialising with the pressures of studying. In our work, we have explored how a digital game can help, through supporting students in reflecting on and making better decisions about their own work-life balance.
The research
We created the Student Life Balance game as a way to prompt student reflection on their wellbeing. Our initial evaluation showed promising results, and indicated that playing as someone other than yourself allowed for a great psychological distance between the player and the game, where reduced psychological reactance created additional opportunities for reflection and behaviour change. To further evaluate the game, we developed a reflection questionnaire. While a larger scale study did not provide support for a hypothesised difference between playing the game as another character or as yourself, our findings suggest that reflection is dependent on the player’s experience of meaningfulness. We are currently refining the reflection questionnaire and planning an additional study to compare the game to other interventions.
Featured publications
Funding
- University of York Pump Priming
- Mentally Fit York
Featured Researcher/s