Chronic stress is defined as exposure to a stressor persisting for several hours per day for weeks or months ( Dhabar and McEwen, 1997).
Chronic stress over time influences cardiovascular, metabolic, and immunological dysfunction, and contributes to the progression and exacerbation of multiple health problems including coronary heart disease, autoimmune disease, and diabetes ( Harbuz et al., 2003 Pasquali et al., 2006 Steptoe and Kivimaki, 2012). Stress is an important predictor of long term health. To address these limitations, the current study replicated methods used in previous stress research informed by the Biopsychosocial Model of Challenge and Threat ( Blascovich and Tomaka, 1996), and compared stress outcomes across different types of video game content. Second, studies examining stress have used video games with different types of content, which can have different effects on stress outcomes. First, most research is not informed by established stress models that incorporate both cognitive and physiological factors, which has led to inconsistent conceptual definitions of stress across studies. Mixed findings may be a result of two limitations in current video game studies. Some research studies have found that video games induce stress ( Hasan et al., 2013 Hasan, 2015 Ferguson et al., 2016), while others have shown that video games reduce or manage stress ( Reinecke, 2009 Russoniello et al., 2009 Roy and Ferguson, 2016). In recent years, research has demonstrated an interest in the effects of video games on stress. Future research should comprehensively measure biopsychosocial stress indicators and multiple emotional states over time to fully examine the relationship between video games and stress. Based on the study findings, video games do not induce stress responses like mental stressors used in previous research, demonstrating that the interactive player experience in video gaming may have more complex effects on stress outcomes. Increased blood pressure and decreased heart rate variability was associated with fighting game players when compared with the puzzle game players, indicating a cardiovascular stress response however, fighting game players also reported higher positive emotion ratings. Results indicated that threat appraisal instructions increased negative emotion ratings and decreased heart rate variability, but not blood pressure, which is an essential marker for cardiovascular stress responses. Study outcomes were heart rate variability, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and positive and negative emotion ratings measured before, during and after gameplay. Participants received challenge or threat appraisal instructions, and played a fighting game ( Mortal Kombat) or a puzzle game ( Tetris). The current study used the Biopsychosocial Model of Challenge and Threat ( Blascovich and Tomaka, 1996) to determine if video games induce a cardiovascular stress response by comparing the effects of threat and challenge appraisals across two types of video games that have shown different cardiovascular outcomes. Although previous studies have found that video games induce stress, studies have not typically measured all salient indicators of stress responses including stress appraisals, cardiovascular indicators, and emotion outcomes.
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