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Affectional interactions with your animated child avatar can enhance wellbeing

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Title: Affectional interactions with your animated child avatar can enhance wellbeing
Authors: Edalat, A
Polydorou, N
Ryan, F
Gilbert, B
Nicholls, D
Item Type: Journal Article
Abstract: The aim of this proof-of-concept study was to evaluate the efficacy of a new virtual reality (VR) platform for practising the Self-Attachment Technique (SAT) in a non-clinical population.The growing prevalence of mental health problems underscores the urgent need for scalable and effective interventions. SAT is a self-administered psychotherapeutic technique where the individual creates an affectional bond with their childhood self and vows to re-raise this child to emotional wellbeing. Digital technologies like VR and avatars can naturally enhance SAT by improving imaginative interactions with the childhood self. Over an 8-week period, participants practised the SAT exercises either by animating their personalised childhood avatar into different emotional states in VR or by imaginatively using their childhood photos.Participants' measurements were collected before and after the intervention as well as at 3-month follow-up, and analysed to understand whether changes over time, in the areas of wellbeing, self-compassion and psychological capital, are significant. Overall, participants experienced significant improvement in wellbeing (primary outcome) with large effect size (r = 0.86). Further exploratory analysis of our findings indicated that the effect of VR (d = 1.12) was better compared to the childhood photos (d = 0.47). Qualitative evidence from the present study suggested that the intervention had a positive impact on participants' daily lives. This study showed that practising SAT using the participant's childhood avatar in a virtual environment has potential for enduring effects that need to be validated in future randomised trials.
Issue Date: 26-Aug-2024
Date of Acceptance: 14-Aug-2024
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/114014
DOI: 10.3389/frvir.2024.1424217
ISSN: 2673-4192
Publisher: Frontiers Media S.A.
Journal / Book Title: Frontiers in Virtual Reality
Volume: 5
Copyright Statement: Copyright © 2024 Edalat, Polydorou, Ryan, Gilbert and Nicholls. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Publication Status: Published
Article Number: 1424217
Online Publication Date: 2024-08-26
Appears in Collections:Computing
Faculty of Medicine
Department of Brain Sciences
Faculty of Engineering



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