Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Sep 5, 2025
Date Accepted: Jul 16, 2026
A Mobile Virtual Reality-Based Intervention for Stress Reduction Among Young Adults: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial
ABSTRACT
Background:
Young adults (aged 18–29 years) experience disproportionately high levels of stress, posing significant health challenges. This demographic often underutilizes traditional stress management methods due to perceived ineffectiveness, inconvenience, or stigma. Mobile virtual reality (VR) offers a novel, engaging, and accessible alternative.
Objective:
This pilot randomized controlled trial evaluated the efficacy of MindCo Relief (MR), a mobile VR-based stress management application, for reducing perceived stress anxiety, depressive symptoms, and improving resilience, and quality of life.
Methods:
Seventy participants with moderate-to-high stress levels at baseline were randomized into intervention and control groups. The intervention group completed an 8-week VR mindfulness program while the control group received no intervention. The primary outcome was self-perceived stress (PSS-10), with secondary measures of resilience (CD-RISC2), anxiety (GAD-7), depressive symptoms (PHQ-9), and quality of life (GWS). Linear mixed-effects models assessed intervention effects over the 8-week study period.
Results:
The intervention group demonstrated significant reductions in stress (PSS-10: -7.69, p<0.001), anxiety (GAD-7: -4.95, p<0.001), and depressive symptoms (PHQ-9: -4.85, p<0.001), alongside improved resilience (CD-RISC2: +0.95, p=0.003) and quality of life (GWS: +14.39, p<0.001). These changes were significantly larger relative to changes in the control group (p<0.05), except for resilience, where the group difference was only marginally significant (p=0.057).
Conclusions:
This study underscores the potential of mobile VR to address stress in young adults through immersive environments that promote relaxation and adaptive stress responses. The findings support further exploration of VR’s role in mental health care. Future research should examine long-term impacts and strategies to sustain engagement to maximize VR’s therapeutic potential. Clinical Trial: This study has been registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT06970652) and can be accessed at https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06970652).
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.