Eliciting affect in teens in a virtual world

项目简介（由申请人提供）：拟进行的项目将研究如何使用沉浸式虚拟现实技术作为青少年预防爱滋病的干预工具。青少年有感染艾滋病毒的危险。情感失调在青少年中很常见。研究表明，不良的情绪管理能力与青少年危险的性行为之间存在联系。这项研究表明，调节情绪的能力是避免危险行为的关键，青少年更容易出现不良情绪管理技能。幸运的是，这些技能可以通过教学和建模来教授，使他们成为一个很好的干预目标，这在以前是通过角色扮演来实现的。沉浸式虚拟现实在模拟真实世界环境和扩大艾滋病毒预防干预的影响方面，比用于青少年艾滋病毒预防干预的基于群体的角色扮演具有许多优势。与在创伤后应激障碍中的应用类似，沉浸式虚拟现实是一种很有前途的技术，可以让青少年有机会在高度现实的环境中练习有效的情绪调节技能。这项技术的其他好处可能会增加青少年对艾滋病毒预防干预措施的参与和坚持。这个拟议的STTR项目第一阶段和第二阶段的总体目标是为青少年开发和完善一个以影响管理为目标的虚拟现实环境。在第一阶段，研究团队将开发和完善一个沉浸式虚拟环境，在高风险情况下引发影响。最终的沉浸式虚拟现实环境（在第二阶段完成）可以由健康促进干预人员与艾滋病毒预防干预手册一起使用，作为引发情感的手段，并为青少年提供一个“真实世界”的环境，在这个环境中练习与物质使用和艾滋病毒预防有关的情绪调节技能。这些目标将通过罗德岛医院/布朗的研究人员和virtual Better的合作来实现，后者是一家专门为临床应用创造沉浸式虚拟现实环境的小企业。该工具将代表着影响调节技能的实践和磨练方式的重大进步，目前通过角色扮演或想象暴露来实现，通过增加用于引发影响的线索的显著性，从而使其对干预学家，学校和心理健康临床医生具有很高的市场价值。公共卫生意义：(1)研究沉浸式虚拟现实技术是否为青少年练习情绪调节技能和协商更安全的性行为提供了增强的环境。(2)为青少年艾滋病毒预防干预提供额外的工具，以降低性风险为目标。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed project will examine the use of immersive virtual reality technology as an intervention tool for HIV Prevention with adolescents. Adolescents are at risk for contracting HIV. Affect dysregulation is common among adolescents. Research has demonstrated connections between poor affect management abilities and risky sexual behavior among adolescents. This research suggests that the ability to regulate one's emotions is key to avoiding risk behaviors and that adolescents are at greater risk for poor affect management skills. Fortunately, these skills can be taught via teaching and modeling, making them an excellent target for intervention, which has previously been approached through role-playing. Immersive virtual reality offers many advantages over group based role-plays, used in HIV prevention interventions for adolescents, in its ability to simulate real-world environments and extend the impact of HIV prevention interventions. Similar to its use in PTSD, immersive virtual reality is a promising technology for giving teens the opportunity to practice using effective affect regulation skills in a highly realistic environment. Additional benefits of this technology will likely be increased engagement and retention in HIV prevention interventions among young adolescents. The overall aims of Phase I and Phase II of this proposed STTR project are to develop and refine a virtual reality environment for adolescents targeting affect management. In Phase I, the research team will develop and refine an immersive virtual environment that will elicit affect in a high-risk situation. The final immersive virtual reality environments (completed in Phase II) can be used by health promotion interventionists in conjunction with an HIV prevention intervention manual as a means to elicit affect and provide adolescents with a "real world" environment in which to practice emotion regulation skills related to substance use and HIV prevention. These aims will be achieved through the collaboration of researchers at Rhode Island Hospital/Brown and Virtually Better, a small business that specializes in creating immersive virtual reality environments for clinical use. This tool will represent a significant advance in the way in which affect regulation skills are practiced and honed, currently achieved via role plays or imaginal exposure, by increasing the salience of cues used to elicit affect, thus making it highly marketable to interventionists, schools, and mental health clinicians. Public Health Significance: (1) Examine whether immersive virtual reality technology provides an enhanced environment for adolescents to practice emotion regulation skills and negotiate safer sexual behavior. (2) Provide adolescent HIV prevention interventions with an additional tool to target sexual risk reduction. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This project would design and develop an immersive virtual reality environment for adolescents with mental health problems to provide realistic scenarios with which adolescents can practice managing affect associated with cues to engage in risk behaviors.