A Virtual Reality Brief Violence Intervention: Preventing Gun Violence Among Violently Injured Adults

Not Applicable

Recruiting

• Conditions: Violence

• Registration Number: NCT06239285
• Lead Sponsor: Virginia Commonwealth University

Brief Summary

The overall aim of the proposed project is to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of Brief Violence Intervention-Virtual Reality (BVI-VR) for reducing firearm-related violence, re-injury, and mortality among victims of violence. Outcome measures of firearm-related violence will come from multiple sources, including criminal background checks, hospital data, state-level data, semi-structured clinical assessments, and self-report assessments. In addition, the study aims to understand the impact of BVI-VR on psychosocial mediators resulting in a reduction of firearm-related violence. This will include self-report surveys, neurocognitive assessments, and clinical assessments. The economic efficiency of BVI-VR as a firearm-related violence intervention will also evaluated. To achieve these aims, a randomized control trial (RCT) in a large sample of violently injured adults (18+ years) from VCU Health will be conducted.

Detailed Description

Brief Violence Intervention-Virtual Reality (BVI-VR) is being developed as a hospital-based brief gun violence intervention program founded on the principles of positive psychology, motivational goal setting (via gameplay), psychoeducation, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and dialectical behavioral therapy. This proposal will develop five steps to create a 30-minute brief firearm-related violence intervention. The five steps address a range of psychosocial risk factors and enhance protective factors for violence, as well as psychoeducational programming specifically addressing the risk of firearm violence. All steps of the BVI-VR emphasize being in control of making positive choices, and how to locate and leverage opportunities within their communities to improve their well-being. BVI-VR empowers patients to be the driver of their well-being.

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2024-01-26
• Study First Submitted QC: 2024-01-26
• Study First Posted: 2024-02-02
• Study Start: 2024-02-26
• Status Verified: 2025-06
• Last Update Submitted: 2025-06-06
• Last Update Posted: 2025-06-08
• Primary Completion: 2026-09
• Study Completion: 2026-10

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: RECRUITING
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 220

Inclusion Criteria

• violently injured patients from VCU's Level 1 Trauma Center
• 18 years or older
• English-speaking

Exclusion Criteria

• Under 18 years old
• Not a victim of Violent crime

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Gun Behaviors and Beliefs Scale	3 and 6 month post baseline	Gun Behaviors and Beliefs Scale will be used to measure gun behaviors and beliefs that may be impacted by the intervention: Safety and Control, Social Perceptions, Emotional Risk, Common Beliefs. The subscales have demonstrated adequate to good internal consistency (α = .79-.96).
Firearm criminal conviction and arrests/ Criminal Background Checks	prior to baseline assessment, from baseline to 3-month follow-up, and from 3-month follow-up to the 6-month follow-up.	Criminal background checks will be conducted on participants to assess violent criminal arrests and gun-related crimes and police contacts. Criminal activity will be coded for the occurrence of nonviolent crime, violent crime, and firearm-related crime for three-time points: prior to baseline assessment, from baseline to 3-month follow-up, and from 3-month follow-up to the 6-month follow-up.
Firearm-related violence /The gun violence questionnaire	Baseline self-report, 3- and 6-months post-randomization	The gun violence questionnaire is a 9-item self-report that assesses firearm-related violence. Items were adapted from the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire physical aggression scale; for example, "Given enough provocation, I may fire my gun at another person". The measure has adequate internal consistency (α = .75) and good convergent and discriminant validity with other violence related measures
Non-convicted firearm-related violent crime/ Violent Crime Assessment	3 and 6 month post baseline	Violent Crime Assessment is a semi-structured clinical assessment of convicted and non-convicted violent crime. The measure captures six categories of violent crimes that participants have and have not been arrested for; simple assault, aggravated assault, homicide, robbery, rape, and sexual assault. Information is collected on weapon use for each of the crimes (e.g., used a firearm during rape; fired a gun at a party and may have hit someone). The VCA provides a valuable index for firearm-related violence that is not captured in self-report measures or criminal background checks.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Firearm-related re-injury/ Self-report	3 and 6 month post baseline	Violent injury data are collected from self-report surveys which capture the number of times a participant has been violently injured and what the patient was injured by (GSW).
Firearm-related mortality/ Hospital data; Virginia Department of Health; National Death Index	3 and 6 month post baseline	Mortality rates will be collected from hospital records and the National Death Index database.
Firearm-related re-injury/ Hospital data: Virginia Department of Health	3 and 6 month post baseline	Violent injury data are collected from VCU's hospital database.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Virginia Commonwealth University; 🇺🇸 Richmond, Virginia, United States