Virtual Reality, Youth and Mental Health
(2021 – ongoing)


VR prototyping body-based scenario (left); youth in co-design VR workshop (right).
Team
Alissa N. Antle (PI, co-lead)
Dr. Alexandra Kitson (co-lead research and design, post-doctoral fellow, SFU)
Petr Slovak (UK Research Innovation Future Leaders Fellow, Kings College London, UK)
Dr. Katherine Isbister (UCSC, USA)
Graduate students:
Ashu Adhikari
Sadhbh Kenny
Annemiek Veldhuis
Priscilla Lo
Undergraduate students:
Artun Cimensel
John Ordoyo
Kenneth Karthik
Melissa Chan
Madison Gara
Learn more here
Project Summary
The VR Youth mental health project involves the creation of new co-design methods for involving youth, therapists and teachers in research creation of VR prototypes. The end goal is to investigate how VR can be used by youth for emotion regulation skills training in their everyday lives, homes and schools.
Research Objectives
Combine emotion regulation theories with youth-centric therapeutic practices to co-design, develop, deploy and evaluate a series of virtual reality (VR) mental health interventions to support the development of youth emotion regulation skills and cognitive reappraisal training. The project is committed to the inclusion of input from diverse youth and their local communities throughout the research process.
Social Impact Goals
Develop new co-design methods to involve therapists, teachers and youth in a research and design process to develop, deploy and evaluate a series of VR mental health interventions for youth. Co-design methods combine embodied design approaches with ethical sensitivities and critical theory (e.g. query theory) to support diverse youth to have agency and control in the technologies that impact their mental health.
Keywords
Virtual reality, emotion regulation, cognitive reappraisal, co-design, intervention, youth.
Technology
Meta Quest 2 VR Headsets, Unity Virtual Reality prototyping environment.
Community Partners
Ms. Leslie Chesick (registered therapist, UBC student services), Ms. Joia D’Aurora, Ms. Ashley Anderson, Ms. Sian Oliver, Mr. Danny Laufer and grade 10 class (Windsor Secondary School North Vancouver, Canada); Mr. Bill Zhao and DM Summer Teen VR Program (Vancouver, Canada); Ms. Laurie Brazzill and senior theatre class (Kwantlen Park Secondary, Surrey, Canada).
Funders
NSERC Discovery Grant (Antle), NSERC Post-doctoral Fellowship (Kitson), UKRI (Slovak).
Relevant Publications
2023
Proceedings Articles
Co-Designing a Virtual Reality Intervention for Supporting Cognitive Reappraisal Skills Development with Youth Proceedings Article
In: Proceedings of the 22nd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference, pp. 14–26, Association for Computing Machinery, Chicago, IL, USA, 2023, ISBN: 9798400701313.
2022
Proceedings Articles
“There Are a LOT of Moral Issues with Biowearables” ... Teaching Design Ethics through a Critical Making Biowearable Workshop Proceedings Article
In: Interaction Design and Children, pp. 327–340, Association for Computing Machinery, Braga, Portugal, 2022, ISBN: 9781450391979.
2021
Proceedings Articles
Facilitating Online Distributed Critical Making: Lessons Learned Proceedings Article
In: FabLearn Europe / MakeEd 2021 - An International Conference on Computing, Design and Making in Education, Association for Computing Machinery, St. Gallen, Switzerland, 2021, ISBN: 9781450389891.
Designing Biotech Ethics Cards: Promoting Critical Making During an Online Workshop with Youth Proceedings Article
In: Interaction Design and Children, pp. 450–455, Association for Computing Machinery, Athens, Greece, 2021, ISBN: 9781450384520.
Opportunities and Scaffolds for Critical Reflection on Ethical Issues in an Online After School Biowearable Workshop for Youth Proceedings Article
In: FabLearn Europe / MakeEd 2021 - An International Conference on Computing, Design and Making in Education, Association for Computing Machinery, St. Gallen, Switzerland, 2021, ISBN: 9781450389891.