An interventional study of Embrace Your Power: A VR Journey to Overcome Negative Emotions in Bullying, Distress and Bullying Victimisation, sponsored by University of Bucharest. Not yet recruiting at 1 site in Romania. Open to participants aged 10 Years to 14 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-08-29.
Sponsored by University of Bucharest · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention
The goal of this randomized controlled trial is to test the effectiveness of an educational tool, based on virtual reality (VR), for preventing and combating bullying and for improving the emotional well-being of pre-adolescent students.
Participants will be allocated to one of two conditions:
The intervention group will be compared to the control group in terms of peer aggression and victimization (bullying behaviors) and emotional symptoms.
This protocol outlines a cluster, parallel-group, exploratory, randomized controlled trial where participants are randomly allocated to one of the two groups: intervention or control.
57 studies on the registry are indexed under Bullying; 9 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 300 is above the median of 228 across 51 interventional studies indexed under Bullying.
Browse Bullying studies →University of Bucharest is the lead sponsor of 11 studies on the registry; 6 are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion Criteria:
Medical problems that have VR-based procedures as because they can induce dizziness, seizures, nausea:
Neurodevelopmental disorders
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.
Contraindication
A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
VR program for preventing and combating bullying
Behavioral: Embrace Your Power: A VR Journey to Overcome Negative Emotions
The control group receives the intervention after the study ends.
EYP-VR represents a virtual reality (VR) educational tool to combat bullying. Using Meta Quest 3 passthrough technology, the app combines real-world classroom elements with immersive virtual scenarios, enabling safe and interactive experiences that simulate bullying situations but that do not place students in the roles of victims or aggressors but heroes or protectors. The app guides participants through narrative episodes focused on building empathy, practicing assertiveness, and learning conflict resolution techniques. AI-driven characters dynamically respond to students' actions as they engage in puzzles, and sensory feedback (visual, auditory, and haptic) reinforces key socio-emotional learning outcomes. The program will take place in classrooms during instructional hours. Each session will end with a feedback phase so that the school counselor can manage any issues that interest them.
Bullying behaviors
Bullying behaviors will be measured using the Adolescent Peer Relations Instrument (APRI) -C2. The instrument encompasses bullying victimization, perpetration, and bystander experiences. APRI represents a psychometric tool that measures teens' experiences with bullying and victimization through 36 items rated on a 6-point Likert scale (1= never, 6= every day).
Time frame: Pre-intervention (baseline), middle intervention, post-intervention (week 7)
Emotional symptoms
Emotional distress will be assessed using the Emotional Symptoms subscale from the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire - SDQ (Romanian self-report). The instrument consists of 25 items, and 5 items are representative of emotional symptoms. Items are rated on a 3-point Likert scale where 1= untrue and 3= certainly true.
Time frame: Pre-intervention (baseline), middle intervention, post-intervention (week 7)
Strengths and Difficulties
The other subscales from the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) will be used to measure conduct problems (5 items), hyperactivity/inattention (5 items), peer relationship problems (5 items) and prosocial behavior (5 items). Items are measured on a 3-point Likert scale where 1= untrue and 5= certainly true.
Time frame: Pre-intervention (baseline), middle intervention, post-intervention (week 7)
Plan to share: Undecided
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
Start is estimated for Oct 2025; primary completion for Sep 2026, 11 months later.
Of 36 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Bullying, half reached primary completion within 10 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 3 and three quarters within 18. This study's planned 11 months is close to that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 40 studies reached it within 11 months; a quarter within 4 and three quarters within 20.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in Aug 2025. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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University of Bucharest