A VR Intervention for Promoting Prosocial Behavior and Well-being in Youth

Lead sponsor

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University is the lead sponsor of 676 studies on the registry; 254 are open to participants now.

Study arms

• Experimental
  VR Intervention group

  Participants in the intervention condition will be required to complete a 4-session gamified prosocial VR intervention program, one session a week for four consecutive weeks, each session lasts around 15-20 minutes.

  Behavioral: Prosocial VR intervention

• Sham comparator
  Waitlist control group

  Participants in the waitlist condition will be asked to continue their usual activity routines before their turn to receive the intervention.

  Other: No intervention

Interventions

• BehavioralProsocial VR intervention

  A four-week gamified prosocial VR intervention program based on literature review and relevance to the local contexts will be developed for the proposed project. The intervention will be expanded to include four weekly sessions, each lasting between 15 to 20 minutes. Each session will depict a different daily life scenario-campus, lecture hall, canteen, and library, respectively. During each session, participants will engage in a series of tasks that incorporate elements of prosocial behavior or helping actions within the scene. These tasks are designed to be more comprehensive and interactive, ensuring that participants are fully immersed in the experience for the entire duration of the session.

• OtherNo intervention

  The waitlist control group will not receive the intervention during the study.

Primary outcomes

1. Prosocial behavior

   The Prosocialness Scale for Adults (PSA) will be used to measure prosocial behavior. Each item will be rated on a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (never/almost never true) to 5 (almost always/always true). Higher scores indicate a higher level of prosocial behavior.

   Time frame: Baseline (pre-intervention); immediately after the intervention (post-intervention); 1 month after intervention (follow-up)

2. Prosocial attitudes

   Three items of prosocial attitudes will be revised from the Prosocial Orientation Questionnaire. Each item will be rated on a 6-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree). Higher scores indicate more positive prosocial attitudes.

   Time frame: Baseline (pre-intervention); immediately after the intervention (post-intervention); 1 month after intervention (follow-up)

3. Prosocial identity

   The Internalization subscale of the Self Importance of Moral Identity Scale (SIMIS) will be adapted to assess the prosocial identity. Each item will be rated on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Higher scores indicate a higher level of Prosocial identity.

   Time frame: Baseline (pre-intervention); immediately after the intervention (post-intervention); 1 month after intervention (follow-up)

4. Prosocial intention

   The Prosocial Behavioral Intentions Scale (PBIS) will be used to assess people's intentions to behave prosocially in the future. Each item will be rated on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging 1 (Definitely would not do this) to 7 (Definitely would do this). Higher scores indicate a higher level of prosocial intention.

   Time frame: Baseline (pre-intervention); immediately after the intervention (post-intervention); 1 month after intervention (follow-up)

5. Attitudes toward helping others

   The Attitudes toward helping others scale (AHO) will be used to test attitudes towards helping others. Each item will be rated on a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Higher scores indicate more positive attitudes toward helping others.

   Time frame: Baseline (pre-intervention); immediately after the intervention (post-intervention); 1 month after intervention (follow-up)

6. Altruism

   Two items from Preference Survey Module (PSM) will be adapted to assess altruism. For example, one item is: "Imagine the following situation: you won 1,000 Euro in a lottery. Considering your current situation, how much would you donate to charity? (Values between 0 and 1000 are allowed)". Elevated scores on this item reflect a greater degree of altruistic.

   Time frame: Baseline (pre-intervention); immediately after the intervention (post-intervention); 1 month after intervention (follow-up)

7. Online prosocial behavior

   The Online Prosocial Behavior Scale (OPBS) will be used to measure online prosocial behavior. Each item will be rated on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging 1 (never) to 7 (always). Higher scores indicate a higher level of online prosocial behavior.

   Time frame: Baseline (pre-intervention); immediately after the intervention (post-intervention); 1 month after intervention (follow-up)

8. Empathy

   The Single Item Trait Empathy Scale (SITES) will be used to measure empathy. This item will be rated on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree), with a higher score indicates a higher level of empathy.

   Time frame: Baseline (pre-intervention); immediately after the intervention (post-intervention); 1 month after intervention (follow-up)

9. Subjective happiness

   The Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS) will be used to measure participants' subjective happiness. Each item will be rated on a 7-point Likert scale. Higher scores indicate a higher level of subjective happiness.

   Time frame: Baseline (pre-intervention); immediately after the intervention (post-intervention); 1 month after intervention (follow-up)

10. Life satisfaction

    The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) will be used to measure life satisfaction. Each item will be rated on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from "Strongly Disagree" to "Strongly Agree. Higher scores indicate higher levels of life satisfaction.

    Time frame: Baseline (pre-intervention); immediately after the intervention (post-intervention); 1 month after intervention (follow-up)

11. Flourishing

    The Flourishing Scale (FS) will be used to measure flourishing. Each statement is answered using a 7-point Likert scale (7 - strongly agree to 1 - strongly). Higher scores indicate a higher level of flourishing.

    Time frame: Baseline (pre-intervention); immediately after the intervention (post-intervention); 1 month after intervention (follow-up)

12. Self-esteem

    The Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (RSE) will be used to measure self-esteem. Each item will be rated on a 4-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 4(strongly disagree). Higher scores indicate higher levels of self-esteem.

    Time frame: Baseline (pre-intervention); immediately after the intervention (post-intervention); 1 month after intervention (follow-up)

13. Affect

    The Emmons Mood Indicator will used to measure affect. it measures two dimensions: Positive Affect and Negative Affect. Each item will be rated on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (not at all) to 7 (extremely). Higher scores indicate a higher level of affect.

    Time frame: Baseline (pre-intervention); immediately after the intervention (post-intervention); 1 month after intervention (follow-up)

14. Mental health

    The Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4) will be used to measure mental health. Each item will be rated on a 4-point Likert scale: "0" for "not at all," "1" for "several days," "2" for "more than half the days," and "3" for "nearly every day." Higher scores suggest a higher likelihood of experiencing significant depression and anxiety symptoms.

    Time frame: Baseline (pre-intervention); immediately after the intervention (post-intervention); 1 month after intervention (follow-up)

15. Diary measures

    State prosocial behavior outcomes and well-being outcomes will be measured.

    Time frame: Daily monitoring for four weeks during the intervention

Secondary outcomes

1. Feelings in the VR

   Two items will be uesd to measure the sense of reality. Items are "I feel that the maze seemed very much like the one in the real world" and "The game scene made me feel like I was truly there".

   Time frame: immediately after the intervention (post-intervention)

2. Levels of difficulty

   Two items will be used to measure the levels of difficulty. Items are "The game is very difficult" and "The game is too difficult to operate".

   Time frame: immediately after the intervention (post-intervention)

3. Levels of interest

   Two items will be used to measure the levels of difficulty. Items are "This game is very interesting" and "I like this game".

   Time frame: immediately after the intervention (post-intervention)

4. Intervention satisfaction

   The Client Satisfaction Questionnaire-8 (CSQ-8) will used to test Intervention satisfaction. Each item will be rated on a 4-point Likert scale where "1" indicates the lowest degree of satisfaction and "4," the highest. Higher scores indicate higher intervention satisfaction.

   Time frame: immediately after the intervention (post-intervention and only in the last week)

Other outcomes

1. Socio-demographic variables

   The following socio-demographic variables such as gender, age, level of education, and family income will be collected.

   Time frame: Baseline (pre-intervention)