Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: JASON SILVA DE ALMEIDA JUNIOR

Uma banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO de MESTRADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : JASON SILVA DE ALMEIDA JUNIOR
DATE: 15/12/2025
TIME: 15:00
LOCAL: meet.google.com/grd-pxpq-rgh
TITLE:

Contact With Nature Through Virtual Reality: Implications for Nature Connectedness and Reducing Stress in Children Undergoing Hospital Treatment

KEY WORDS:

simulated reality, pediatric hospitalization, nature relatedness, ecological self

PAGES: 77
BIG AREA: Ciências Humanas
AREA: Psicologia
SUBÁREA: Psicologia do Desenvolvimento Humano
SUMMARY:

Contact with nature benefits physical, emotional, and social health, contributing to overall well-being and integral child development. Prolonged hospitalization curtails this contact, triggering physical and emotional complications and impairing children's quality of life, which can result in emotional isolation, anxiety, and stress. Virtual Reality (VR) enables users to access otherwise unreachable locations due to their health condition or hospitalization, serving as an alternative to mitigate the lack of natural contact and maintain a connection with the natural environment. This research aims to analyze the contributions of VR-mediated nature exposure to nature connectedness and stress reduction in hospitalized children. This is a multiple case study involving pre- and post-intervention assessment. The sample will consist of 30 patients aged 6 to 12, selected by convenience sampling from a public hospital in Santarém (PA), Brazil, and their respective guardians. The children will be randomly allocated into two groups. The first group will participate in VR interactions with natural environments, while the second (control) group will interact with built environments. Data collection instruments will include: hospital records, the research team's field diary, a semi-structured interview script for children and caregivers regarding their perception of and previous contact with nature, the Illustrated Inclusion of Nature in Self Scale (INS), the Connectedness to Nature Index (CNI), and the Child Stress Scale (CSS). The intervention will consist of five sessions on consecutive days, mediated by VR headsets, with or without vicarious (symbolic) nature contact, depending on the group. The battery of scales will be administered before and after the complete set of intervention sessions. We hypothesize that nature contact via virtual reality will promote increased levels of nature connectedness and a decrease in stress levels among the hospitalized children.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Interna - 1552900 - IANI DIAS LAUER LEITE
Interno - ***.853.015-** - JAILSON SANTOS DE NOVAIS - UFSB
Interno - 1776327 - THIAGO ALMEIDA VIEIRA
Externo à Instituição - MATTHEW H. E. M. BROWNING