Adolescent Responses to Varying Environments in Virtual Reality Simulations

Adolescent Responses to Varying Environments in Virtual Reality Simulations (THRIVE: The Research In Virtual Environments Study)

The objective of this study, named THRIVE (The Research In Virtual Environments Study), is to test hypotheses for how neighborhood environments influence stress and emotion, as a mechanism by which they may influence health. Neighborhood environments may have both acute influences on stress-related processes, but also may have lifespan effects due to the chronic, cumulative effects of repeated exposures and the long-term toll of adapting to adverse neighborhood environments. However, assessing neighborhood influences on stress and emotion is methodologically challenging. This study develops such a novel, alternative approach to address these questions by deploying a virtual reality (VR) based model of neighborhood disadvantage and affluence that creates an immersive experience approximating the experience of being in different neighborhoods. In this study, this model will be applied to understand neighborhood effects in a diverse sample of adolescents (n = 130) from a range of disadvantaged and affluent neighborhoods. The proposed study will employ a randomized experiment (n = 65 per condition), with online questionnaires and a single study session, to determine (a) if virtual exposure to neighborhood disadvantage elicits differences in emotion and stress reactivity; (2) if growing up in a disadvantaged neighborhood results in habituation or sensitization to different neighborhood characteristics; and (3) if chronic stress results in habituation or sensitization to different neighborhood characteristics. This research will develop an innovative methodology that will help establish the role that neighborhoods may play in eliciting stress as well as the processes of adaptation to chronic stress and chronic neighborhood exposures. In addition, it will help establish a method that can be utilized more broadly to study contextual and social environmental influences on psychological and biological risk in adolescence.

Participants will attend one study session. They will watch a video during a baseline rest period. Participants will be assigned to navigate and explore the virtual neighborhood representative of disadvantage they were assigned to. Then they will watch a video again during a recovery period.

Participants will attend one study session. They will watch a video during a baseline rest period. Participants will be assigned to navigate and explore the virtual neighborhood, representative of affluence they were assigned to. Then they will watch a video again during a recovery period.

Participants will rate how strongly they felt 9 specific emotions while in the virtual neighborhood (each emotion rated 0-8 scale, with 8 being the highest) (e.g. Haase, Seider, Shiota, & Levenson, 2012; Mauss & Robinson, 2009). Participants will also complete the Self-Assessment Manikin, which assesses on two dimensional scales how they felt, from (a) happy to unhappy, and (b) excited to calm (Bradley & Lang, 1994).

Participants will give saliva samples to assess cortisol response, with statistical models assessing change over time during the study session

From baseline before the virtual reality task to immediately after the virtual reality task, and to immediately and 15 and 30 minutes following completion of all post-task questionnaires

Systolic and diastolic blood pressure will be measured, with statistical models assessing change over time during the study session.

Assessed at regular intervals from the baseline period before the task through 30 minutes following the completion of the virtual reality task and post-task questionnaires

Electrocardiograph signals will be recorded continuously at baseline, during the virtual reality task, and after the task (during the session) to measure high frequency heart rate variability, with statistical models assessing change over time during the study session

Continuously assessed from the baseline period before the task through 30 minutes following the completion of both the virtual reality task and post-task questionnaires

Impedance cardiograph signals will be recorded continuously at baseline, during the virtual reality task, and after the task (during the session), to generate measures of cardiac output, with statistical models assessing change over time during the study session.

Continuously assessed from the baseline period before the task through 30 minutes following the completion of both the virtual reality task and post-task questionnaires

Impedance cardiograph signals will be recorded continuously at baseline, during the virtual reality task, and after the task (during the session), to generate measures of total peripheral resistance, with statistical models assessing change over time during the study session

Continuously assessed from the baseline period before the task through 30 minutes following the completion of both the virtual reality task and post-task questionnaires

Impedance cardiograph signals will be recorded continuously at baseline, during the virtual reality task, and after the task (during the session), to generate measures of pre-ejection period / left ventricular contractility, with statistical models assessing change over time during the study session.

Continuously assessed from the baseline period before the task through 30 minutes following the completion of both the virtual reality task and post-task questionnaires

Inclusion Criteria: English speaking Are able to use a dominant hand for joystick manipulation and a non- dominant hand for physiological measurements, Are in good physical and mental health, with no self-reported history of hypertension, cardiovascular disease (CVD) or CVD treatment (with associated medication list indicative of treatments that result in exclusion), Have hair at least 1cm in length based on self-report to be able to provide a hair sample. Exclusion Criteria: Pregnant, by self-report