Children’s perception of phobogenic stimuli in virtual reality

Abstract

There has been a growing interest in treatments involving exposure in virtual reality (VR) for a number of anxiety disorders and phobias. Contrary to expectations, this technique has proven less popular with phobic children and is less appealing to them than to adults. The hypothesis is that children may be more apprehensive about virtual aversive stimuli than adults. In Study 1, the perception of virtual phobogenic stimuli was assessed in 523 participants between the ages of 7 and 60. To analyze to what extent anxiety and phobic fear predict apprehension, 38 school-aged children took part in Study 2. The results show that children apprehend phobic virtual stimulus more than adults and that apprehension is associated with specific phobic fear rather than a general anxiety state. Results are discussed in terms of clinical interest, children’s cognitive development, and a priori fear of virtual reality stimuli. • Virtual reality to treat phobias is not always attracting for children. • Children and adolescents showed more apprehension than adults toward virtual spiders. • Apprehension is specifically associated with the intensity of phobic fears. • It is important to address people’s apprehension when proposing to use VR in therapy.