Session: Preventing Violence through Digital Apps and Virtual Reality (Society for Prevention Research 26th Annual Meeting)

Schools and school-aged youth are broadly impacted by aggression and violence that are carried out in multiple forms. Violence prevention has been the focus of multiple preventive interventions and practices developed for schools and school-aged youth. The use of specific technologies may fill gaps in the field of prevention and in extant research. For example, apps may improve acceptability and accessibility among school-aged youth and the school personnel who serve them and, in turn, may lead to greater buy-in and uptake of disseminated practices. Virtual reality provides people with exposure to experiential learning that can be more challenging to provide in real-world settings. This organized poster symposium highlights two digital applications and two mixed/virtual reality platforms, all aimed at reducing youth violence or the experience of violence by youth. Each presentation will provide participants with an understanding of how a specific technology is being used for violence prevention, how it was developed, and how can be utilized by school personnel and youth. Limited demonstrations of the technology will be shared. The first two posters focus on the development of digital applications. The first poster focuses on the development of digital application to be utilized by school administrators to observe the physical environment of the school. The aim of this application is to make explicit for administrators the link between their school’s physical environment and student involvement in violence and prompt them to improve their environment and school climate. Pilot data will be presented. The second poster will present the adaptation process of a digital application that provides easy access to safety planning services for college-aged women, for an adolescent audience. The aim of this application is to reduce the prevalence and impacts of adolescent dating abuse. Qualitative data for this adaptation will be presented. The third poster focuses on a mixed-reality simulation that has been tailored to provide middle school teachers with guided practice in detecting, preventing, and responding to aggression and bullying in the classroom. The process of development as well as the functioning of this platform will be shared. How this simulation situates into a broader intervention and randomized controlled trial will be described. The fourth poster will also focus on bullying and examines the blending of middle school curricula with an immersive virtual reality experience for students. Preliminary findings from a randomized controlled trial will be presented. Through the organized poster symposium format, participants will be able to engage with each presenter about specifics of the technology and intervention or practices it promotes.