Impact of Cognitive Flexibility on Resilience and Social Skills of Cooperative Video Gamers

Abstract

The evolving landscape of digital gaming, particularly cooperative video games, has sparked growing academic interest in understanding the psychological attributes fostered through gameplay. The research explores the effect of cognitive flexibility for two crucial psychosocial outcomes, resilience and social skills, among individuals who regularly engage in cooperative video gaming. Utilizing a quantitative research design, data were collected from a sample of cooperative gamers aged 20–30, using standardized scales to measure cognitive flexibility, resilience, and social skills, Pearson correlation, regression analyses and descriptive statistics were employed to examine the magnitude and nature of associations between variables. Results revealed a substantial positive correlation among cognitive flexibility, resilience and social skills. Furthermore, cognitive flexibility emerged as a strong predictor of both outcome variables, suggesting that gamers who demonstrate greater mental adaptability are more capable of recovering from challenges and navigating social interactions effectively within virtual and real-life settings. These findings hold implications for the potential use of cooperative gaming environments as informal platforms to cultivate emotional strength and interpersonal competence in youth and young adults. This study adds to an expanding corpus of literature highlighting intersection between cognitive traits and the social-psychological benefits of gaming.