Life Matters: Exploring the Influence of Games and Mental Skills on Relatedness and Social Anxiety Levels in Disengaged Adolescent Students

LifeMatters is a 10-session life skills program implemented with youth that uses mental skills training and games to meet the three basic psychological needs of relatedness, autonomy, and competence. Forty disengaged students (20 experimental, 20 control) 16–17?years of age from a YMCA vocational school completed self-report measures before and after the intervention period. The school focuses on services for adolescents who find it difficult to gain an education through mainstream education due to behavioral and developmental issues. Mixed between-within subjects analyses of variance showed that there was a significant decrease in social anxiety, Wilks’s λ?=?.84, F(1, 26)?=?5.07, p?=?.03, partial?η²?= .16, and a significant increase in relatedness Wilks’s λ = .87, F(1, 26) = 4.2, p = .05, partial η² = .14, over time for the experimental group compared to the control group. Analyses of covariance showed no significant difference between the two groups in change on social anxiety levels, F(1, 25)?=?1.34, p?=?.26, partial η²?=?.05, when controlling for relatedness, and no significant difference between the two groups in change in relatedness levels, F(1, 25) = 1.34, p = .26, partial η² = .05, when controlling for social anxiety. This study provides insight into the potential effectiveness of using games and mental skills training to increase relatedness and decrease levels of social anxiety in disengaged students.

Lay Summary: LifeMatters is a life skills program combining mental skills training and physically active games. Disengaged students who took part in the program reported lower levels of social anxiety and higher levels of relatedness compared to students who did not take part.