Exploring the moderating role of maternal attachment style on the impact of a virtual reality environment on parental empathy and style: A pilot study

Research has demonstrated that parental empathy, a factor implicated in risk of child maltreatment, could be enhanced using Virtual Reality (VR) by helping mothers to take a child perspective. However, whether parental attachment style could affect the efficacy of this approach is unclear. In this pilot study, a sample of nineteen British mothers participated in a VR study where they were embodied in a child avatar and interacted with a virtual mother adopting a harsh and critical (negative) or warm and supportive (positive) parenting style. Participants completed the Adult Adolescent Parenting Inventory, a measure of risk of child maltreatment, including an empathy subscale, before and after exposure to both conditions. They completed the Parenting Scale, a self-report measure of parenting style, and the Mind in the Eyes task (cognitive empathy) before and after exposure to each individual condition. Participants’ attachment style was measured using the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale. Mothers’ scores for empathy did not change from before to after the exposure, and the extent of change did not relate to attachment style. However, there was a significant increase in attitudes relating to effective parenting practices (lower laxness, overreactivity and verbosity), with some preliminary evidence this change was moderated by attachment style. Thematic Analysis of participants’ qualitative reports of the experience suggested the VR evoked cognitive and emotional responses congruent with each condition, led to child perspective-taking, meta-cognitive awareness of their communication styles, and self-reported changes in parenting behaviours. It also highlighted areas for further development of the VR paradigm to enhance immersion. The lack of replication of a change in empathy requires further investigation with more robustly validated measures of both cognitive and emotional empathy. Increases in self-reported effective parenting style, which appeared to be moderated by parental attachment style requires further investigation with a larger sample and better representation of the full distribution of attachment styles and socioeconomic, cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Whilst not replicating previous findings of changes in empathy, an increase in self-reported effective parenting style provides some preliminary support for the potential future utility of VR in reducing child maltreatment.