Eliciting affect via immersive virtual reality: a tool for adolescent risk reduction

Area of Science:

• Adolescent psychology
• Virtual reality research
• Physiological measurement

Background:

• Adolescent substance use and sexual risk-taking are significant public health concerns.
• Understanding the triggers for these behaviors is crucial for developing effective interventions.
• Virtual reality environments (VREs) offer a controlled setting to study responses to risk cues.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and evaluate a VRE for exposing adolescents to substance use and sexual risk cues.
• To examine the utility of VREs in eliciting physiological arousal in adolescents.
• To assess changes in physiological arousal in response to specific VRE segments.

Main Methods:

• 42 adolescents (mean age 14.54 years) participated in a within-subject design.
• Participants were exposed to a neutral VRE and a VRE depicting a party scene with risk cues.
• Physiological arousal was measured using heart rate (HR), respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), and self-reported somatic arousal.

Main Results:

• The party VRE significantly increased physiological arousal compared to the neutral VRE.
• Heart rate (HR) was elevated across all party segments (orientation, substance use, sexual risk).
• Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was significantly impacted by orientation and sexual risk segments.

Conclusions:

• Virtual reality environments (VREs) can successfully generate physiological arousal in adolescents.
• VREs provide a valuable tool for studying adolescent responses to substance use and sexual risk cues.
• This research offers preliminary evidence for the application of VREs in psychological research with adolescents.