Reducing Anxiety in Left-behind Children: A Study on the Effectiveness of Video Games as a Therapeutic Intervention" in Rural Province of China

Abstract

Purpose: The study aimed to find out the effect of video games on the level anxiety of school-age children who are left behind by their parents in the rural province of China. Background: The school-age children who have been left behind are facing a significant increase in vulnerability to anxiety symptoms. The commercial, 3d Video Games have shown potential applications in preventive and therapeutic medicine. The researcher intended to determine the potential benefits of video on the level of anxiety of school-age LBC in the rural province of China. Methods: A Quantitative research approach, particularly quasi pre-test and post-test design used to carry out the study. Fifty-eight (58) school-age children were selected through purposive sampling and randomly assigned the twenty-four (24) participants to experimental, twenty-four (24) participants to comparison groups, and ten (10) participants to pilot study thru the fishbowl technique. The Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) was used to assess the levels of anxiety of the two groups before and after treatment. The MiNi World 3D video games administered to the experimental group for 20 minutes daily in 14 days as an intervention. Whereas the comparison group played the school play activities of grabbing stones and kicking sandboxes for 20 minutes in 14 days as a treatment. Data subjected to the statistical treatment of frequency, percentage, mean score, SD, Mann-Whitney U test, and Wilcoxon signed rank test. Results: All participants or 100% (24=n) of the experimental group were at a low level of the anxiety after treatment. There is no significant difference in the level of anxiety of the comparison group and experiment group in the pretest with a p-value of 0.060. There is a significant difference in the level of anxiety of pretest and post-test of the experimental group with a p-value of <0.0005) after 14 days of the intervention of video games. Conclusions: The video games of MiNi World (3D Video Games) have a positive effect on the levels of anxiety among school-age children who left behind by their parents in rural province China.