Reducing Social Avoidance Among Adolescents With Special Educational Needs
Trial statusNot yet recruiting
Trial phaseNot applicable
Trial typeInterventional
Biological sexAll
Age16-19
SponsorThe Hong Kong Polytechnic University
About this trial
The goal of this clinical trial is to examine the effectiveness of a Virtual Reality (VR) social avoidance intervention in reducing social avoidance symptoms among adolescents with special educational needs. Participants will complete tasks in the VR scenario with increasing difficulty and learn that they can cope in situations that they previously avoid. We hypothesize that, comparing with usual care (i.e. waitlist control), the intervention group will experience a significant reduction on social avoidance symptoms after treatment and this benefit will persist till 1-month follow-up.
Eligibility criteria
This trial accepts healthy volunteersQualifiers
Age 16-19
Can read traditional Chinese and understand Cantonese
Self-report on experiencing social avoidance symptoms
Disqualifiers
History of photosensitive epilepsy
Impairment of stereoscopic vision
Balance problems
Trial design
Design model
Parallel
Treatments tested in this trial
VR Social Avoidance Intervention
BehavioralThe intervention is based on cognitive-behavioral approach with a virtual coach acting as the therapist. It will be designed in tandem with input from Hong Kong users to ensure the scenario can resonate with them. By testing beliefs that inhibit confidence in a safe and controlled environment, participants will complete tasks with increasing difficulty in three VR scenarios and learn that they can cope in situations that they previously avoid.
Treatment groups
208 Participants
are divided into 2 treatment groupsGroup A: VR Social Avoidance InterventionExperimental treatment 1 intervention
Group B: Waitlist ControlNo intervention 0 interventions
Trial outcomes
Primary outcomes
1
Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9)
To assess the extent to which respondents are bothered by depression related symptoms using a 4-point Likert scale from 0 (not at all) to 3 (nearly every day), with higher score indicating higher level of depressive symptoms.
Time frame
1st week, 4th week, 8th week2
Generalized Anxiety Disorder Assessment (GAD-7)
To assess the extent to which respondents are bothered by anxiety related symptoms using a 4-point Likert scale from 0 (not at all) to 3 (nearly every day), with higher score indicating higher level of anxiety symptoms.
Time frame
1st week, 4th week, 8th week3
Work and Social Adjustment Scale (WSAS)
An adapted version of the 5-item WSAS will be used to measure the extent to which respondents' psychological problem impact their various aspects of life. It is rated on an 8-point Likert scale ranges from 0 (not at all impaired) to 8 (severely impaired). Higher score indicates higher level of impact on various aspects of life caused by psychological problems.
Time frame
1st week, 4th week, 8th week4
Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (bFNE)
This is a 12-item scale that measures the fear associated with being evaluated unfavorably while anticipating or participating in a social situation, including apprehension about receiving negative evaluation, avoidance of being evaluated, and the expectation of being negatively evaluated with a 5-point Likert-type rating scale, ranging from 1 (not at all characteristic of me) to 5 (extremely characteristic of me). Higher score indicates higher level of fear of Negative Evaluation.
Time frame
1st week, 4th week, 8th weekSponsors and contacts
Click on the lead sponsor to view all of their trials.
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Lead sponsor
Chinese University of Hong Kong
Collaborator
Source ClinicalTrials.gov
This trial is not recruiting at the moment. You can still explore other options: