Abstract
This study examined whether interactive Virtual Reality (VR) provides a more ecologically valid assessment of children’s aggressive social information processing (SIP) and aggressive responses than a standard vignette-based assessment. We developed a virtual classroom where children could meet and play games with virtual peers. Participants were boys (N = 184; ages 7–13) from regular education and special education for children with disruptive behavior problems. They reported on their SIP in four scenarios (i.e., two instrumental gain and two provocation scenarios) presented through both interactive VR and vignettes. Teachers reported on children’s real-life aggressive behavior and reactive and proactive motives for aggression. Results demonstrated that children found the interactive VR assessment more emotionally engaging and immersive than the vignette-based assessment. Moreover, compared to vignettes, the interactive VR assessment evoked higher levels of aggressive SIP and responses in provocation scenarios only. Results supported the enhanced predictive validity of the interactive VR assessment of children’s aggressive SIP and responses, which predicted children’s real-life aggression above and beyond the vignette-based assessment with 2 to 12% additional explained variance. Similar results were found for children’s real-life reactive and proactive motives for aggression, with 3 to 12% additional variance explained by interactive VR above and beyond vignettes. Interactive VR did not, however, evoke larger individual differences (i.e., variances) in children’s aggressive SIP and responses than vignettes. Together, these findings suggest that interactive VR provides a more ecologically valid method to assess children’s aggressive SIP and responses than hypothetical vignettes.
Highlights
Children are often confronted with challenging social situations, such as not being allowed to join a peer group or being reprimanded by their teachers or parents
To test our second hypothesis that interactive Virtual Reality (VR) assessment of aggressive social information processing (SIP) (2a) and responses (2b) better predicts children’s aggressive behavior in real life compared to vignettes, we examined whether VR explained additional variance in real life aggression above and beyond vignettes, but not vice versa
We had insufficient data to compare VR versus vignettes on SIP variables that were only assessed if children responded aggressively
Summary
Participants were individually tested in a silent room at their school by trained graduate students or the first author. Graduate students were trained in multiple sessions by the first author and were supervised during the first two assessments to ensure assessment fidelity. The interactive VR- and vignette-based SIP assessments both lasted 45 min and were completed on two different days with approximately one week in between. We counterbalanced the order of these assessments across participants to control for order effects. At the end of each assessment, boys reported on their emotional engagement and immersion during the assessment. Boys received a small monetary reward (€5) for their participation. Teachers reported on boys’ aggressive behavior and filled out the SEQ through online questionnaires (response rate = 98%). The study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of University Medical Center Utrecht
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