Adolescent Responses to Varying Environments in Virtual Reality Simulations

NCT ID: NCT04465240

Last Updated: 2024-06-07

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 107 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2021-10-06
• Study Completion Date: 2023-04-22

Brief Summary

The objective of this study, named THRIVE (The Research In Virtual Environments Study), is to test hypotheses for how neighborhood environments influence stress and emotion, as a mechanism by which they may influence health. Neighborhood environments may have both acute influences on stress-related processes, but also may have lifespan effects due to the chronic, cumulative effects of repeated exposures and the long-term toll of adapting to adverse neighborhood environments. However, assessing neighborhood influences on stress and emotion is methodologically challenging. This study develops such a novel, alternative approach to address these questions by deploying a virtual reality (VR) based model of neighborhood disadvantage and affluence that creates an immersive experience approximating the experience of being in different neighborhoods. In this study, this model will be applied to understand neighborhood effects in a diverse sample of adolescents (n = 130) from a range of disadvantaged and affluent neighborhoods. The proposed study will employ a randomized experiment (n = 65 per condition), with online questionnaires and a single study session, to determine (a) if virtual exposure to neighborhood disadvantage elicits differences in emotion and stress reactivity; (2) if growing up in a disadvantaged neighborhood results in habituation or sensitization to different neighborhood characteristics; and (3) if chronic stress results in habituation or sensitization to different neighborhood characteristics. This research will develop an innovative methodology that will help establish the role that neighborhoods may play in eliciting stress as well as the processes of adaptation to chronic stress and chronic neighborhood exposures. In addition, it will help establish a method that can be utilized more broadly to study contextual and social environmental influences on psychological and biological risk in adolescence.

Conditions

Residential Characteristics; Emotions; Stress, Psychological; Stress, Physiological

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Virtual reality simulation of neighborhood disadvantage

Participants will attend one study session. They will watch a video during a baseline rest period. Participants will be assigned to navigate and explore the virtual neighborhood representative of disadvantage they were assigned to. Then they will watch a video again during a recovery period.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Virtual reality

Intervention Type: OTHER

Participants are immersed in a neighborhood environment in virtual reality

Virtual reality simulation of neighborhood affluence

Participants will attend one study session. They will watch a video during a baseline rest period. Participants will be assigned to navigate and explore the virtual neighborhood, representative of affluence they were assigned to. Then they will watch a video again during a recovery period.

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Virtual reality

Intervention Type: OTHER

Participants are immersed in a neighborhood environment in virtual reality

Interventions

Virtual reality

Participants are immersed in a neighborhood environment in virtual reality

Intervention Type: OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• English speaking
• Are able to use a dominant hand for joystick manipulation and a non- dominant hand for physiological measurements,
• Are in good physical and mental health, with no self-reported history of hypertension, cardiovascular disease (CVD) or CVD treatment (with associated medication list indicative of treatments that result in exclusion),
• Have hair at least 1cm in length based on self-report to be able to provide a hair sample.

Exclusion Criteria

• Pregnant, by self-report

• Minimum Eligible Age: 14 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 17 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

NIH

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University of Southern California

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Daniel Hackman

Assistant Professor

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Daniel A Hackman, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Southern California

Locations

University of Southern California / USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work

Los Angeles, California, United States

Countries

United States

Provided Documents

Document Type: Study Protocol

View Document

Document Type: Statistical Analysis Plan

View Document

Document Type: Informed Consent Form

View Document

Other Identifiers

1R21HD099596-01

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: secondary_id

View Link

UP-19-00205

Identifier Type: OTHER

Identifier Source: secondary_id

262625

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id