O potencial dos jogos digitais na promoção da saúde mental dos jogadores

Abstract

In a world dictated by the evolution of technology, digital games have become an increasingly popular entertainment media. Thanks to their unique characteristics, such as immersion, interactivity and instant feedback, this media is proving increasingly promising in areas other than entertainment. Recognizing this potential, digital games began to be studied to understand how they could be used to help treat mental disorders, thus contributing to improving people's mental health. The aim of this dissertation is to try to understand the main effects of digital games on players' mental health, and whether they can be used as auxiliary tools to improve mental health. This research focused not only on the analysis of various theoretical studies, but also on the players' perspectives, collected through the application of questionnaire surveys. This research has shown that digital games have the potential to serve as support tools in the treatment of mental disorders, that there is a significant predominance of positive emotions during the gaming experience and that a large proportion of participants believe that digital games can contribute to improving people's mental health, highlighting their ability to provide joy, fun and relaxation.

Date of Award	19 Jul 2024
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Catarina Duff Burnay (Supervisor)