Positive Youth Development in the Metaverse

University of Georgia (UGA)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Behavior, Child; Healthy; Healthy Lifestyle; Childhood ALL

Treatments: Behavioral: No Virtual reality curriculum; Behavioral: Virtual reality curriculum

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05858593

00006669

Details and patient eligibility

About

This pilot study aims to leverage VR's capacity to easily replicate content and allow for multiple users to share the same space and engage in activities as if they're meeting in person. Integrating VR into afterschool programs will allow youth to receive more consistent programming content, even when they are unable to travel to the physical location for the in-person meetings.

Full description

This pilot study aims to leverage VR's capacity to easily replicate content and allow for multiple users to share the same space and engage in activities as if they're meeting in person. Integrating VR into afterschool programs will allow youth to receive more consistent programming content, even when they are unable to travel to the physical location for the in-person meetings. It will also empower youth to engage with the afterschool program at their own pace by providing a safe space to learn and practice their socioemotional skills. Implemented at scale, these benefits of a VR-integrated afterschool program will be able to address the issues of health inequity head on by expanding access to high quality afterschool content without incurring high operating costs. The results from this pilot study will provide a critical foundation to apply for an extramurally funded clinical trial to demonstrate the efficacy of a VR-integrated afterschool program on youth mental wellbeing.

Aim 1: Determine feasibility of a VR-integrated afterschool program where youth can access the VR content on their own at home.

Aim 2: Test the hypothesis that complementing the in-person afterschool program with VR will increase a) engagement and b) socioemotional competencies in youth.

Aim 3: Test the hypothesis that youth will demonstrate better mental wellbeing when the in-person afterschool program is complemented with VR.

Enrollment: 31 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 9+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Children enrolled in the Chess & Community program
• Between the ages of 9-17
• The parent/primary caregiver of these children

Exclusion criteria

• Children who are unable to wear a VR headset will not be recruited

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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31 participants in 2 patient groups

Treatment

Experimental group

Description:

In the treatment group, the child will receive the VR-based curriculum in addition to receiving the devices to use for 8 weeks.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Virtual reality curriculum

Control

Active Comparator group

Description:

In the control group, the child will still receive the devices to use for 8 weeks, but will not have the VR-based curriculum.

Treatment:

Behavioral: No Virtual reality curriculum