Virtual Reality Applications for Children and Adolescents in Mental Health: A Scoping Review of Assessment and Intervention in Clinical Practice.

IF 2.9 3区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL

Clinical psychology & psychotherapy Pub Date : 2026-07-01 DOI:10.1002/cpp.70325

Nina Krupljanin, Lenneke R A Alink, Anja van der Voort, Catharina E Bergwerff

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background: The purpose of this scoping review was to synthesize literature on virtual reality (VR) applications used in assessment and treatment in youth mental health care. We studied the validity of assessment tools, the effectiveness of (preventive) interventions and their feasibility.

Method: The search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, Embase and PsycInfo. Studies were included if VR was used in a population of minors to assess prevent or treat mental health-related symptoms in clinical populations or at-risk groups.

Results: A total of 43 studies were included. Thirteen studies investigated the validity of VR assessment tools whereby the majority focused on the assessment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms. These studies found that VR shows a performance advantage over traditional assessment tools by increasing sensitivity and specificity. Effectiveness was studied in 30 studies including youth with autism spectrum disorder, anxiety, attention difficulty and behaviour problems. The working mechanisms of these VR interventions encompassed skills practice, exposure and relaxation. VR interventions show promising results for all working mechanisms, with most evidence for social skills and communication training for children with autism spectrum disorder. Importantly, none of these applications have been tested more than once. Nearly half of all included studies lacked feasibility measures, while the rest showed inconsistencies in their feasibility assessment.

Conclusions: VR applications for youth in mental health show promise. More standardized testing and replication studies with transparent VR feasibility assessments are needed to determine their effectiveness and utility in clinical practice.

Trial registration: The protocol was preregistered at OSF (https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/YZV37).

查看原文本刊更多论文

虚拟现实在儿童和青少年心理健康中的应用：临床实践评估和干预的范围综述。

背景：本综述的目的是综合虚拟现实（VR）在青少年精神卫生保健评估和治疗中的应用文献。我们研究了评估工具的有效性、（预防性）干预措施的有效性及其可行性。方法：在PubMed、Web of Science、Embase和PsycInfo中进行检索。如果在未成年人群体中使用虚拟现实来评估预防或治疗临床人群或高危人群的精神健康相关症状，则纳入研究。结果：共纳入43项研究。13项研究调查了虚拟现实评估工具的有效性，其中大多数集中在评估注意缺陷多动障碍症状。这些研究发现，通过提高灵敏度和特异性，VR比传统评估工具表现出性能优势。在30项研究中研究了有效性，包括患有自闭症谱系障碍、焦虑、注意力困难和行为问题的青少年。这些虚拟现实干预的工作机制包括技能练习、暴露和放松。虚拟现实干预在所有工作机制中都显示出有希望的结果，大多数证据表明自闭症谱系障碍儿童的社交技能和沟通训练。重要的是，这些应用程序都没有经过多次测试。在所有纳入的研究中，近一半缺乏可行性措施，而其余的研究在可行性评估中表现出不一致。结论：虚拟现实技术在青少年心理健康领域的应用前景广阔。需要更多标准化的测试和复制研究，并进行透明的VR可行性评估，以确定其在临床实践中的有效性和实用性。试验注册：该方案已在OSF （https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/YZV37）进行预注册。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Clinical psychology & psychotherapy PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL-

CiteScore

6.30

自引率

5.60%

发文量

106

期刊介绍： Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy aims to keep clinical psychologists and psychotherapists up to date with new developments in their fields. The Journal will provide an integrative impetus both between theory and practice and between different orientations within clinical psychology and psychotherapy. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy will be a forum in which practitioners can present their wealth of expertise and innovations in order to make these available to a wider audience. Equally, the Journal will contain reports from researchers who want to address a larger clinical audience with clinically relevant issues and clinically valid research.