Peer-Reviewed Study Says Dungeons & Dragons Good for Mental Health

A study published in Games for Health Journal Vol 13, No 2 titled A Study on the Efficacy of the Tabletop Roleplaying Game Dungeons & Dragons for Improving Mental Health and Self-Concepts in a Community Sample by Alyssay Merrick, Wendy Wen Li, and Dan J. Miller shows mental health benefits of tabletop roleplaying games.

Twenty-five participants played Dungeons & Dragons for one hour per week for eight weeks with surveys before, during, and after the game sessions. All participants played the same module run by a local games club in Queensland, Australia, and were balanced across prior experience with D&D with 16% having no experience, 32% moderate experience, and 20% a “great deal” of experience.

According to the study, “Participants demonstrated significant decreases in depression, stress, and anxiety and significant increases in self-esteem and self-efficacy over the study period”. The paper states that the results indicate D&D and other RPGs “may have potential utility as a wellbeing intervention or prevention program”.

A free version of the paper published by the authors is available in PDF format

 

[aco175]

We all know what playing for only 1 hour per week leads to...

But with better math and social skills.

 

[Morrus]

It would be interesting to see the exact same study done, exact same parameters, but replacing D&D with chess, football, and pubs.

 

[Distracted DM]

I cringe at the tiny sample size.

I cringe at a 1 hour ttrpg session 1/week
That's even shorter than 4e's organized game, "Encounters" I think?

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

I cringe at a 1 hour ttrpg session 1/week
That's even shorter than 4e's organized game, "Encounters" I think?

The set piece single-fight ones? Yeah, I think those were "Encounters" and ran maybe 2-3 hours. "Delves" were the three-room dungeons and a bit longer IIRC.

Not a bad format for board game night, arguably faster and more fun than a game of Descent. Rather questionable as an RPG.

 

[MNblockhead]

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Twenty-five participants played Dungeons & Dragons for one hour per week for eight weeks with surveys before, during, and after the game sessions. All participants played the same module run by a local games club in Queensland, Australia, and were balanced across prior experience with D&D with 16% having no experience, 32% moderate experience, and 20% a “great deal” of experience.

Seems like they were all players.

Now let me see the results of the surveys for DMs.

 

[MNblockhead]

Also, I'd like to see a control group that spent an hour on unstructured social interactions for comparison.

Right. I would expect similar results from board games and other social activity.

But one thing that D&D has going for it is the exercise of creativity and imagination. TTRPGs boost me in ways other group social activities don't.

 

[Abstruse]

Seems like they were all players.

Now let me see the results of the surveys for DMs.

Reading the paper under their methods section, the DMs were all from the local game club running the same adventure to have as much of a "control" as you can have in something as freeform as D&D.