Attitudes Towards Virtual Reality Therapy

Description

The Attitudes Towards Virtual Reality Therapy (AVRT) Scale (Bergin, Allison, & Hazell, 2024) is a tool developed to measure public perceptions of virtual reality therapy (VRT), a psychological treatment guided by a virtual coach. It was created to explore attitudes toward VRT in the context of digital mental health interventions. The scale was developed by AMA and ADGB, with an initial pool of 54 items derived from themes found in existing literature on VRT. These items assessed various perceptions toward VRT. Participants, who were adults with prior VR experience but no personal or professional mental health problems (although some had supported friends or family members with mental health issues), completed the scale. The instrument also included 3 free-text questions, encouraging participants to reflect on their VR experiences and perceptions of the ideal VRT setting. Following exploratory factor analyses (EFAs), 33 items across four factors were retained. The scale’s reliability was evaluated, demonstrating strong internal consistency across the factors.

Authors

• Aislinn D. Gomez Bergin: National Institute for Health and Care Research MindTech MedTech Co-operative, Institute of Mental Health, University of Nottingham, UK. ORCID
• Aoife M. Allison: Mental Health and Clinical Neurosciences, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, UK. ORCID
• Cassie M. Hazell: Department of Psychological Interventions, School of Psychology, University of Surrey, UK. ORCID

Purpose

The AVRT Scale is designed to assess attitudes toward VRT in psychological therapy, specifically exploring how people view the effectiveness, presence, and preferences for VR-based treatments.

Construct

• Attitudes toward Virtual Reality Therapy (VRT)
• Expectation of presence during VRT
• Preference for VRT
• Perception of cost-effectiveness of VRT

Instrument Type

Inventory/Questionnaire

Items of “AVRT Scale”

• 33 items
• 7-point Likert scale for responses, where 1 = strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree
• 16 items with follow-up free-text questions triggered by strong agreement or disagreement

Reliability

• Internal Consistency: All scales showed strong internal consistency, with Cronbach α ≥ .82 for all factors.

Validity

• No specific validity information was provided for the scale.

Factor Analysis

• Exploratory Factor Analysis: A four-factor solution emerged, explaining 58.61% of the variance in the data.

Test Methodology

• Test Reliability: Assessed through internal consistency.
• Factor Analysis: Exploratory Factor Analysis was conducted to reduce the number of items and identify underlying factors.

Administration Method

• Electronic, with responses collected online.

Population

• Age Groups: Adults (18 years and older), including young adulthood (18-29 years), thirties (30-39 years), middle age (40-64 years), and elderly (65 years and older).
• Gender: Male and female.
• Location: Ireland, United Kingdom.

Items of “AVRT Scale”

Attitudes Towards Virtual Reality Therapy

The following outlines the items used to assess attitudes towards virtual reality therapy (VRT), categorized by construct. Responses were measured on a Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Note that items marked with ‘c’ are reverse-worded.

Attitude toward VRT

• If the virtual coach encouraged me to do something between sessions, I would try to do it.

• I would never be willing to try virtual reality therapy.c

• I would be willing to try virtual reality therapy if I had more information about it.

• I would encourage the people I care about to try virtual reality therapy, if it was offered to them.

• I would discourage the people I care about to try virtual reality therapy, if it was offered to them.c

• I would listen to the virtual coach.

• No amount of practice would make me want to use virtual reality therapy.c

• I cannot imagine virtual reality therapy being useful for someone with mental health problems.

• I am optimistic about virtual reality therapy being used in clinical setting.

• I would feel comfortable interacting with the virtual coach.

• I have a negative attitude toward virtual reality therapy.“

• I think that using technology for therapy is positive.

• I would not trust a virtual coach.

Expectation of presence

• I would feel like I was acting during virtual reality therapy.c

• Virtual reality therapy would not be effective for me because I would be mindful that it is not real life.

• I do not think the virtual environment would feel real.

• I would find that characters in the virtual reality therapy unsettling.c

• Potential side effects of virtual reality therapy would put me off using it.

• I am sceptical about the effectiveness of virtual reality therapy.c

• I think that the virtual reality therapy would make me feel present enough to be effective.

• I would decline virtual reality therapy because I would prefer face-to-face therapy.c

• I think that the virtual reality environment would feel real.

Preference for VRT

• I think virtual reality therapy would be better than face-to-face therapy.

• I would trust a virtual coach more than a real therapist.

• I believe that virtual reality therapy is more effective than face-to-face therapy.

• I believe that virtual reality is equally effective as face-to-face therapy.

• I would trust a virtual coach the same amount as a real therapist.

• I believe that virtual reality therapy is less effective than face-to-face therapy.c

• I would choose face-face therapy over virtual reality therapy.

Cost-effectiveness

• I think that using virtual reality therapy would save the NHSe money in the long term.

• I think virtual reality therapy would be more cost-effective than face-to-face therapy.

• I think that using virtual reality therapy would cost the NHSe more money in the long term.

• I think virtual reality therapy will be worth the cost.

Scale Summary

References

Bergin, A. D. G., Allison, A. M., & Hazell, C. M. (2024). Understanding public perceptions of virtual reality psychological therapy using the Attitudes Towards Virtual Reality Therapy (AVRT) Scale: Mixed methods development study. JMIR Mental Health, 11, Article e48537.