Using Virtual Reality to Reduce Stress in Adolescents: Mixed Methods Usability Study

Background Adolescent mental health is a national mental health emergency amid surging rates of anxiety and depression. Given the scarcity and lack of scalable mental health services, the use of self-administered, evidence-based technologies to support adolescent mental health is both timely and imperative. Objective The goal of this study was 2-fold: (1) to determine the feasibility, usability, and engagement of a participatory designed, nature-based virtual reality (VR) environment and (2) to determine the preliminary outcomes of our self-administered VR environment on depression, mindfulness, perceived stress, and momentary stress and mood. Methods We conducted a within-person, 3-week, in-home study with a community-based sample of 44 adolescents. Participants completed surveys of perceived stress, depression, cognitive fusion, and mindfulness at intake, postintervention, and a 3-week follow-up. Participants were invited to use a nature-based, VR environment that included 6 evidence-based activities 3 to 5 times per week. They completed momentary stress and mood surveys 5 times each day and before and after each VR session. Postintervention, participants completed surveys on system and intervention usability and their experiences with using the VR system. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and mixed effects modeling to explore the effect of the VR environment on stress. Qualitative data were analyzed using collaborative thematic analysis. Results Participants’ use of the VR environment ranged from 1 session to 24 sessions (mean 6.27 sessions) at home over a 3-week period. The 44 participants completed all study protocols, indicating our protocol was feasible and the VR environment was engaging for most. Both the use of the VR system and novel VR intervention received strong usability ratings (mean 74.87 on the System Usability Scale). Most teens indicated that they found the tool to be easily administered, relaxing, and helpful with stress. For some, it offered space to process difficult emotions. The themes calm, regulating, and forget about everything resulted from open-ended exit interview data. Although the Relaxation Environment for Stress in Teens (RESeT) did not significantly affect repeated survey measurements of depression, mindfulness, nor cognitive fusion, it did positively affect momentary mood (pre-intervention: 10.8, post-intervention: 12.0, P=.001) and decrease momentary stress (pre-intervention: 37.9, post-intervention: 20.6, P=.001). We found a significant reduction in within-day momentary stress that strengthened with increased VR use over time during the study period (P=.03). Conclusions These preliminary data inform our own VR environment design but also provide evidence of the potential for self-administered VR as a promising tool to support adolescent mental health. Self-administered VR for mental health may be an effective intervention for reducing adolescent stress. However, understanding barriers (including disengagement) to using VR, as well as further encouraging participatory design with teens, may be imperative to the success of future mental health interventions.