The Feasibility and Acceptability of Virtual Environments in the Treatment of Childhood Social Anxiety Disorder

Abstract

Objective Two significant challenges for the dissemination of social skills training programs are the need to assure generalizability and provide sufficient practice opportunities. In the case of social anxiety disorder, virtual environments may provide one strategy to address these issues. This study evaluated the utility of an interactive virtual school environment for the treatment of social anxiety disorder in preadolescent children. Method Eleven children with a primary diagnosis of social anxiety disorder between 8 to 12 years old participated in this initial feasibility trial. All children were treated with Social Effectiveness Therapy for Children, an empirically supported treatment for children with social anxiety disorder. However, the in vivo peer generalization sessions and standard parent-assisted homework assignments were substituted by practice in a virtual environment. Results Overall, the virtual environment programs were acceptable, feasible, and credible treatment components. Both children and clinicians were satisfied with using the virtual environment technology, and children believed it was a high quality program overall. Additionally, parents were satisfied with the virtual environment augmented treatment and indicated that they would recommend the program to family and friends. Conclusion Virtual environments are viewed as acceptable and credible by potential recipients. Furthermore, they are easy to implement by even novice users and appear to be useful adjunctive elements for the treatment of childhood social anxiety disorder.

Interpretation bias modification for youth and their parents: A novel treatment for early adolescent social anxiety

“…One interpretation of this null finding is that parenting beliefs and associated behaviors exert a relatively weak influence on child anxiety, in line with meta-analytic findings (McLeod, Wood, & Weisz, 2007). This may be particularly true for social anxiety, for which the locus of worry is often outside the family (Sarver, Beidel, & Spitalnick, 2014). With the exception of extreme cases, even intrusive parents’ opportunities to behave intrusively diminish as children reach early adolescence, given school separates even socially anxious children from their parents for most of the day.…”

In Vivo versus Augmented Reality Exposure in the Treatment of Small Animal Phobia: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…In the case of SP, the data on the treatment of spider phobia show that VRE is effective for this problem in adults [ 31 ] and children [ 32 ], more effective in comparisons with wait-list control groups [ 33 , 34 ] and as effective as in vivo exposure [ 35 ]. VR is also well accepted [ 24 , 36 , 37 ], even in children [ 38 ].…”

Counseling Students’ Experiences Viewing Virtual Reality Case Studies

“…Research on VR in the counseling field has focused on its use in the treatment of various traumaand anxiety-based disorders (Parsons & Rizzo, 2008;Rizzo et al, 2008;Sarver et al, 2014;Stupar-Rutenfrans et al, 2017). However, the novelty of VR can still be seen in the lack of research in counselor training.…”

“…Some consist of digital, computer-generated worlds completely created by a programmer with a video game-like feel; others are captured from the real world using advanced video cameras that can record in 360 degrees, with the users' points of view being from the perspective of the camera. This type of technology has primarily been applied to video gameplay; however, some recent attempts have been made to apply this technology to create experiential, simulated educational opportunities (Padilha et al, 2018;Riva, 2005) and as a clinical tool in exposure therapy to treat PTSD (Rizzo et al, 2008), social anxiety (Sarver, Beidel, & Spitalnick, 2014), and various phobias (Parsons & Rizzo, 2008;Stupar-Rutenfrans, Ketelaars, & van Gisbergen, 2017) and to provide pain management (Wiederhold, Gao, Sulea, & Wiederhold, 2014).…”