ERIC Number: EJ1446552
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023
Pages: 18
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-2325-4009
EISSN: EISSN-2325-4017
Embracing Virtual Reality Technology with Black Adolescents to Redress Police Encounters
Danielle M. Olson; Tyler Musgrave; Divya Gumudavelly; Chárdee A. Galán; Sarita Schoenebeck; D. Fox Harrell; Riana E. Anderson
Journal of Youth Development, v18 n3 Article 6 p51-66 2023
Police brutality--including the incidents that mobilized collective outrage and action across the world during the summer of 2020--has negatively impacted the psychological health of Black youth for generations. Police harassment is a persistent form of racial discrimination that Black youth frequently navigate (Brunson, 2007), and particularly as a consequence of vicarious trauma via social media, it has been associated with depressive and anxious sequelae (e.g., Tynes et al., 2019). While Black youth are faced with policing experiences in vivo and in vitro, many studies of the psychological impact of policing are contained within traditional retrospective surveys, which limits our understanding of youth's in-the-moment perceptions and desired concurrent actions. To expand the efforts to assess and redress youth's experiences with police encounters, this manuscript details the development of an afterschool program that supports adolescents in the creation of a series of video game and virtual reality (VR) narratives. A participatory design method was utilized to co-create the perception of policing experiences with Detroit high school students enrolled in a computer science course, allowing them to actualize their experiences "on screen" and work towards redressing these experiences through co-construction and virtual activism.
Descriptors: Police, Violence, Mental Health, Computer Simulation, African Americans, Adolescents, Bullying, Racism, After School Programs, Video Games, High School Students, Coping, Program Development
Clemson University Press. 116 Sigma Drive, Clemson, SC 29634. Tel: 864-656-2278; e-mail: cupress@clemson.edu; Web site: www.clemson.edu/press
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: High Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Michigan (Detroit)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A