Objective: The literature on exergames has examined their impact on user-perceived psychological health (i.e., user-perceived happiness), but little is known about whether such an impact depends on user characteristics. Therefore, this study used the perspective of social cognitive theory (SCT) to identify potential moderators (i.e., whether the user is optimistic or attempting to control his or her weight) of the impact of playing exergames on user-perceived happiness.
Materials and methods: This large-scale randomized controlled trial recruited 337 college students (of whom 57.3% were female and all were aged 20-40 years) as participants. The participants were randomly assigned to the intervention group or the control group. Participants in the intervention group were asked to use an Xbox 360 to play 1 of 10 exergame programs for 30 minutes once a week for 2 weeks. Participants in the control group were not required to do so. Repeated-measures ANOVA was used for the analyses.
Results: The analytical results indicate that playing exergames helped to maintain happiness levels and prevented them from decreasing. The maintained happiness was more prominent among participants who were trying to control their weight, but did not differ between participants who were highly optimistic and those who were less optimistic. This study is the first using SCT to explain the contingent effect of playing exergames on user happiness.
Conclusions: Exergames can maintain happiness among users, and such maintenance can be the strongest among users who are trying to control their weight.
Keywords: Exergame; Happiness; Optimism; Randomized controlled trial; Weight control.