Use of Video Games in High School Curriculum to Mitigate Mental Health in Adolescents

Adolescent mental health has declined in recent years, with nearly 40 percent of high school students in 2023 reporting persistent sadness or hopelessness. Traditional school-based interventions such as mindfulness programs, digital therapy apps, and depression screenings have produced inconsistent results, highlighting the need for new approaches. Video games, already central to adolescent life, present a promising alternative. Research shows that action games improve attention, spatial reasoning, and decision-making, while educational games enhance motivation, learning transfer, and cognitive development. Together, these genres may support both emotional well-being and academic performance. This study proposes a semester-long curriculum integrating structured, nonviolent video game play into high school schedules. Students will be divided into three groups: action gaming, educational gaming, and a non-gaming control group. Each group will participate in a supervised 30-minute session after lunch, a period often associated with reduced focus. The goal is to promote engagement, restore attention, and evaluate gaming as a structured educational tool. A mixed-methods approach will be used. Quantitative measures include pre- and post-surveys such as the WHO-5 Well-Being Index, along with monthly self-reports on stress, mood, and focus. Qualitative data will include teacher and counselor observations of engagement, peer interaction, and behavior. This study examines whether structured gaming can serve as a scalable, school-based strategy to improve adolescent mental health.