Innovative Immersive Technologies for Evidence-Based Violence Prevention among College Students

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ABSTRACT Innovative Immersive Technologies for Evidence-Based Violence Prevention among College Students This Phase I proposal will develop and feasibility test innovative immersive technologies to prevent four CDC categories of violence (youth violence, sexual violence, intimate partner violence, and suicide) that are prevalent among college students. Specifically, we will develop and test virtual reality (VR) modules based on an evidence- based primary prevention approach to violence among college-age youth. NHPA recently developed a sexual violence prevention program as part of two previous federally funded research and development projects, adaptations of an evidence-based substance abuse and violence prevention approach called LifeSkills Training (LST). The LST approach, initially designed for middle school youth, builds personal self-management skills, social skills, and other life skills needed to reduce substance abuse and violence, increase resilience, and successfully navigate developmental tasks. The LST program has been extensively tested and found to effectively prevent substance abuse, violence and aggression, and risky sexual behaviors in a series of randomized controlled trials with 20 separate cohorts of students, with behavioral effects reported in over 35 peer-reviewed publications. The adaptation of LST for college sexual violence prevention was recently tested in an RCT and reduced sexual acts without consent by nearly half (4.4% versus 7.4%) among first-year college students, representing one of the first rigorous studies to demonstrate reductions in sexual violence. In the proposed Phase I proposal, we will develop prototype VR modules for violence prevention that will provide immersive learning experiences through interactive and engaging behavioral rehearsals and branched scenarios. The VR modules will address risk and protective factors that are common to multiple forms of violence, and allow for skills practice in areas including conflict resolution, bystander intervention, coping strategies, and identifying healthy and unhealthy relationships and interactions. We will iteratively focus group test the prototype materials with first-year college students and university educators to demonstrate feasibility, relevance, usability, appeal, and proof-of-concept. We will also examine pre-post changes in key knowledge, attitudes, norms, skills, and behavioral intention variables. If successful, we will develop a full set of standalone VR modules in a future Phase II project that will focus on youth violence, sexual violence, intimate partner violence, and suicide among college students, the relationships between these behaviors and alcohol/drug abuse, how to positively change social norms, train bystanders to identify and appropriately respond to problematic situations, and build social, self-regulation, and healthy social and interpersonal relationship skills. The ultimate VR modules hold significant promise for wide dissemination to prevent multiple forms of violence among college-age youth at four-year colleges, community or junior colleges, universities, graduate and professional schools, for-profit schools, and trade, career and technical schools.