Feasibility of Virtual Reality Environments for Adolescent Social Anxiety Disorder

Abstract

Purpose: This study assessed the feasibility of virtual reality (VR) exposure as an assessment and treatment modality for youth with social anxiety disorder (SAD). Methods: Forty-one adolescents, 20 of which were identified as having SAD, were recruited from a community sample. Youth with and without SAD were exposed to two social virtual environments-party and public speaking-and two neutral virtual environments. Results: All youth reported significantly higher ratings on the Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDS) during the party and public speaking scenarios compared to the two neutral environments, while youth with SAD reported significantly higher SUDS in the public speaking and party environments than those without SAD. Youth also demonstrated acceptable levels of presence and immersion in the VR environments. Discussion: VR exposure treatment appears to be feasible for youth with SAD, highlighting the need for further research on its development.

A Social Work Education Outcome Measure: The Evaluation Self-Efficacy Scale–II

“…Neither is self-efficacy equivalent to self-esteem, self-worth, locus of control, or competence. Second, although Bandura has provided a guide for measuring self-efficacy (Bandura, 2006b), a number of recent studies in social work do not cite and/or optimally utilize this instruction (e.g., Jacobson, Osteen, Sharpe, & Pastoor, 2012;Parrish, Oxhandler, Duron, Swank, & Bordnick, 2016;Tompsett, Henderson, Byrne, Mew, & Tompsett, 2017). Adherence to conceptual and operational definitions is key when researchers utilize the construct.…”

Virtual Reality Treatment for Public Speaking Anxiety in Students. Advancements and Results in Personalized Medicine

“…Subsequently, in the eligibility phase, each title and summary of articles were analyzed according to the inclusion (IC4, IC5) and exclusion (EX4, EX5) criteria. Finally, in the included phase, the final analysis sample was determined for the systematic review (n = 13) [48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60]. The search was conducted on 5 January, 2020.…”

“…Journal h-Index [49,58,60] Annual Review of Cybertherapy and Telemedicine 8 [50,59] Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking 50 [57] Frontiers in ICT 15 [48] IET Software 13 [55] International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning 19 [53] International Journal of Humanities and Social Science 4 [56] Research on Social Work Practice 27 [54] Technology and Health Care 18 [51] Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health 26 [52] Journal of Anxiety Disorders 47…”

“…As for the characteristics of the students, almost all the studies had university students as a sample (84.61%). Only two papers focused on the High School stage [56]. The average age of the students was between 16 and 31.36 years old (M = 22.67; SD = 4.82).…”

“…Therefore, it was not combined with any other technique. In only three of the cases were the students diagnosed with social anxiety disorder [48,52,56]. The rest showed symptoms but were not diagnosed.…”