Culturally Tailored Mindfulness-Positive Psychological Intervention Using Virtual Reality

NCT06019416 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 23430
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 31
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 3

Brief Summary

This study is to explore the experience of older Korean adults with anti-Asian racism in the U.S. and investigate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of a virtual reality-based culturally tailored mindfulness-positive psychological intervention. Primary outcome is racism-related stress and secondary outcomes are negative mental health (e.g., anxiety, depressive symptoms, and anxiety) and positive psychological well-being (e.g., positive affect, optimism, life engagement, mindful attention awareness).

Conditions

Mental Health Issue

Keywords

Virtual reality; Mindfulness; Well-being; Anti-Asian Racism; Positive psychological intervention

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Racism-related stress

  The primary outcome is the racism-related stress measured by vicarious racism. Vicarious racism involves seven items that measure the frequency of hearing about or seeing other people of the same racial group experiencing racism: 1) in public or 2) in the news, 3) from romantic partners or, 4) friends and family members, 5) heard by politicians and 6) other public figures, and 7) seeing racist posts on social media during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic: 0 (never) - 5 (every day). Regarding racism-related stress, participants answer three questions: 1) the degree to which participants thought about these experiences (0 \[never\] - 4 \[always\]) and 2) how distressed, and 3) concerned they were about these experiences (0 \[not at all\] - 4 \[extremely\]; Cronbach's alpha = 0.89).

  Pretest (baseline) and posttest (3 weeks later)

Secondary Outcomes (10)

• Perceived stress

  Pretest (baseline) and posttest (3 weeks later)

• Optimism

  Pretest (baseline) and posttest (3 weeks later)

• Positive affect

  Pretest (baseline) and posttest (3 weeks later)

• Life engagement

  Pretest (baseline) and posttest (3 weeks later)

• Mindful attention awareness

  Pretest (baseline) and posttest (3 weeks later)

Other Outcomes (2)

• Demographic variables

  Pretest (baseline)

• Intervention feasibility

  posttest (3 weeks later)

Study Arms (2)

Intervention group

EXPERIMENTAL

As the intervention group, the participants should participate in three weekly scheduled mindfulness-positive psychological intervention sessions using virtual reality for 15 - 20 minutes per session.

Behavioral: culturally tailored mindfulness-positive psychological intervention

Waitlist group

NO INTERVENTION

As the waitlist group, no treatment was given to the participants, while the intervention group participated in the mindfulness-positive psychological intervention for three weeks. After the three-week waiting period, the participants were contacted and asked to complete the post-measurements. After completion, the participants started with the three-week mindfulness-positive psychological intervention using virtual reality for 15 - 20 minutes. No further data was obtained from these participants after the completion of the program.

Interventions

culturally tailored mindfulness-positive psychological intervention BEHAVIORAL

This 3-week culturally tailored mindfulness-positive psychological intervention instructs techniques to enhance positive emotions and meditation exercise lasting approximately 30 minutes. The culturally tailored mindfulness-positive psychological intervention consists of four modules: 1) noticing positive events, 2) amplifying positive events, 3) gratitude, and 4) mindfulness and meditation. This 3-dimensional software includes gamification features, including a virtual living room, Japanese garden, art gallery, and meditation garden. A private office and/or space was utilized to implement the culturally tailored mindfulness-positive psychological intervention for older Korean Americans/immigrants, provided by the recruitment sites such as non-profit organization and church. The private room at the sites had a desktop (or laptop) computer, a virtual reality device (Oculus Quest 2), a chair, and a desk.

Intervention group

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 60 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• U.S. Korean Americans/immigrants
• ≥ 60 years of age
• Korean fluency
• no medical history of cognitive impairments (e.g., dementia or Alzheimer-related diseases)
• self-reported direct experience of discrimination as per the Everyday Discrimination Scale

You may not qualify if:

• severe cognitive impairment denoting dementia
• other ethnicities rather than Korean Americans/immigrants
• younger than 60 years of age
• cannot speak and read Korean
• have not experienced any discrimination
• serious sensory problems negating the use of virtual reality
• medical history of epilepsy, seizures, or vertigo
• experience in mindfulness or meditation-based programs

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: lead

Study Sites (3)

Xilin Association

Chicago, Illinois, 60005, United States

Location

Hanul Family Alliance

Chicago, Illinois, 60625, United States

Location

Christ Community Church at the Square

Urbana, Illinois, 61822, United States

Location

Study Officials

• Soonhyung Kwon, MSW, MA

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, School of Social Work

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT
• Purpose: HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Model Details: Intervention group will receive the virtual reality-based culturally tailored mindfulness and positive psychological intervention, whereas the control group will not receive any intervention as a waitlist group.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: August 15, 2023
• First Posted: August 31, 2023
• Study Start: January 31, 2023
• Primary Completion: February 1, 2023
• Study Completion: May 19, 2023
• Last Updated: August 31, 2023

Record last verified: 2023-08

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (3)