Correction of anxiety and fears of college and university students using virtual reality technologies

<p><strong>Context and relevance.</strong> Increased anxiety is a current problem for subjects of educational activities. College students are especially susceptible to anxiety disorders and fears due to age-related characteristics and adaptation processes. Thus, there is a need to find an adaptive method that would help reduce students' anxiety. <strong>Objective.</strong> To evaluate the effectiveness of using VR technologies to reduce students' anxiety. <strong>Hypothesis.</strong> If you transform the feeling of anxiety into a specific fear, and then work through it in a controlled virtual reality, then state, trait and student anxiety of the students will decrease. <strong>Methods and materials.</strong> The study involved 52 college and university students (M = 30.9, SD = 10.32, 57% female). Anxiety and fears were assessed using a battery of psychological scales (Beck Anxiety Inventory, Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Gabdreeva’s modified version of the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale for students) and an author-developed fear assessment questionnaire. <strong>Results.</strong> College students exhibited more social fears compared to university (master's) students. Additionally, college students showed higher state anxiety and trait anxiety levels than university students. The study demonstrated that the use of virtual reality (VR) technology contributed to a reduction in state, trait, and student anxiety levels of the students. <strong>Conclusions.</strong> The findings indicate that VR-based interventions are highly effective in fear correction and anxiety reduction. The use of virtual reality technology is recommended for lowering anxiety levels among college and university students.</p>