Positive Youth Development in the Metaverse

Positive Youth Development in the Metaverse - Development of a Virtual Reality Afterschool Program for Middle Childhood Youth

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.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Healthy; Healthy Lifestyle; Behavior, Child; Childhood ALL
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Virtual reality curriculum; Behavioral: No Virtual reality curriculum

Detailed 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.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 32
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Georgia
    • Athens, Georgia, United States, 30606
      • Athens Chess & Community

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Children enrolled in the Chess & Community program
• Between the ages of 9-17

Exclusion Criteria:

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

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: Treatment; In the treatment group, the child will receive the VR-based curriculum during the afterschool program.

Behavioral: Virtual reality curriculum; Rather than rely on mere exposure to devices, participants in the treatment group will receive a curriculum that integrates the devices into traditional content delivered through the after school program.; Behavioral: No Virtual reality curriculum; Children will be able to use the same devices but will not have access to a curriculum that integrates the devices with traditional content delivered through the after school program.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Usability of VR System and Curriculum Content	Based on the validated System Usability Scale (SUS), we created open ended questionnaires and scale items that inquired about user attitude and usability of the system. For scale items reported, all items were measured through a 5-point Likert scale, 1 = Strongly Disagree, 5 = Strongly Agree. Five of the items were adapted from the original scale to assess the usability of the system, with five other items being converted to an open-ended item for a mixed-methods approach and richer contextual information from participants regarding usability issues.	One-time assessment post-treatment, following 4 weeks of exposure to virtual reality system.
Attrition Rate Post Assent to the VR Treatment	Fraction of the children lost to follow up post assent to the intended treatment via the VR system	One-time assessment post-treatment, following 4 weeks of exposure to treatment

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Step Count	Step count based on smart watch measurements. Average steps were calculated from data collected during the 2-hour observation period. Target variance metrics were decomposing the overall (SD), between (B-SD), and within child (W-SD) standard deviations to inform power computations for a large-scale behavioral trial. Step count analysis also indicated that while step counts may be similar in child cohorts/classrooms/after-school programs, there is substantial variability within-child that would indicate response heterogeneity to future behavioral activity interventions with children of this age group. Observation period was a 2 hour window post intervention.	To match the time frame of data collection between step count and heart rate, both measures were taken during a 2 hour observation window on the last day of the 4-week intervention.
Heart Rate	Heart rate (pulse) data from smart watch measurements. Target variance metrics were decomposing the overall (SD), between (B-SD), and within child (W-SD) standard deviations to inform power computations for a large-scale behavioral trial.	To match the time frame of data collection between step count and heart rate, both measures were taken during a 2 hour observation window on the last day of the 4-week intervention.
Engagement	Achieving 240 minutes total exposure VR wear time over four 60-minute sessions.	4 week observation period

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Georgia

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 16, 2023
• Primary Completion (Actual): July 30, 2024
• Study Completion (Actual): July 30, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 19, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 4, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): May 15, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 21, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 17, 2026
• Last Verified: February 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: virtual reality; positive youth development; afterschool program
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Neoplasms; Immune System Diseases; Neoplasms by Histologic Type; Hematologic Diseases; Lymphatic Diseases; Lymphoproliferative Disorders; Immunoproliferative Disorders; Leukemia, Lymphoid; Leukemia; Behavior; Hemic and Lymphatic Diseases; Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma; Child Behavior
• Other Study ID Numbers: 00006669

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: De-identified data used in published analyses will be made available upon request to other researchers with a verified scientific purpose, guarantee that they will store the data securely, not share the data further, not attempt to use the data to determine the identities of research participants, and reference the source of the data in any resulting publications. Intellectual property rights to all software applications and hardware products will be maintained by the University of Georgia.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Verified scientific purpose, guarantee that they will store the data securely, not share the data further, not attempt to use the data to determine the identities of research participants, and reference the source of the data in any resulting publications
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: ANALYTIC_CODE

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No