Virtual Reality and Prevention of Bullying

Summary

The lack of empathy towards victims of bullying is thought to play a main role in this extended and pernicious peer victimization behaviour. Thus, promoting empathy in school programs might be a promising approach for bullying prevention. Virtual reality (VR) allows creating an environment very similar to the real world and has proved to promote empathy.

Therefore, by employing VR, pupils may better understand and feel the experience of being bullied. As there is no evidence of the efficiency of VR in bullying prevention, the first step is to validate the content of the environments created.

In this line, the current study aims to investigate if 360º-videos produce a truthful experience of being bullied superior than the observed in traditional computer screens. The effect of all, 360º-videos and 2D computer screens will be assessed through objective (electrodermal activity -EDA- and heart rate -HR-) and subjective (self-administered tests) measures.

Conditions

• Bullying of Child

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Virtual Reality of Bullying

Immersive videos (360º) filmed by 12-14 year old pupils who, guided by professional actors, represented the subjective experience of bullying. Eight different potential situations designed depending on the sex of the pupil were filmed: Girls: 1. Classmates steal her personal diary 2. Classmates tear her clothing 3. Classmates insult her and steal her belongings 4. Classmates deliberately exclude her in class Boys: 1. Classmates exclude him while playing with a ball 2. Classmates bother him in the dining room 3. Classmates insult and steal him in class 4. Classmates insult him and steal his belongings

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Fundació Eurecat

  collaborator OTHER

• Recercaixa

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Escola Parc del Guinardó

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Fundació FC Barcelona

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Narcis Cardoner, MD, PhD

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Narcís Cardoner, MD, PhD · Corporacion Parc Tauli

• Miguel Barreda, PhD · Eurecat, Centre Tecnològic de Catalunya

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

9 Years

Max Age

12 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2019-04-10

Primary Completion

2019-04-12

Completion

2019-04-12

Countries

• Spain

Study Locations