Working alliance inventory applied to virtual and augmented reality (WAI-VAR): psychometrics and therapeutic outcomes.
This study examines the psychometric properties of the Working Alliance Inventory-Short (WAI-S) adaptation to Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) therapies (WAI-VAR). The relationship between the therapeutic alliance (TA) with VR and AR and clinically significant change (CSC) is also explored. Seventy-five patients took part in this study (74.7% women, M age = 34.41). Fear of flying and adjustment disorder patients received VR therapy, and cockroach phobia patients received AR therapy. Psychometric properties, CSC, one-way ANOVA, Spearman's Correlations and Multiple Regression were calculated. The WAI-VAR showed a unidimensional structure, high internal consistency and adequate convergent validity. "Not changed" patients scored lower on the WAI-VAR than "improved" and "recovered" patients. Correlation between the WAI-VAR and CSC was moderate. The best fitting model for predicting CSC was a linear combination of the TA with therapist (WAI-S) and the TA with VR and AR (WAI-VAR), due to the latter variable slightly increased the percentage of variability accounted for in CSC. The WAI-VAR is the first validated instrument to measure the TA with VR and AR in research and clinical practice. This study reveals the importance of the quality of the TA with technologies in achieving positive outcomes in the therapy.
Department of Personality, Evaluation and Psychological Treatment, University of Valencia Valencia, Spain ; PROMOSAM Excellence in Research Program, Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness Valencia, Spain.
Marta
M
Miragall
Department of Personality, Evaluation and Psychological Treatment, University of Valencia Valencia, Spain ; PROMOSAM Excellence in Research Program, Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness Valencia, Spain ; CIBER Fisiopatología Obesidad y Nutrición, Instituto de Salud Carlos III Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
Rosa M
RM
Baños
Department of Personality, Evaluation and Psychological Treatment, University of Valencia Valencia, Spain ; PROMOSAM Excellence in Research Program, Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness Valencia, Spain ; CIBER Fisiopatología Obesidad y Nutrición, Instituto de Salud Carlos III Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
Ausiàs
A
Cebolla
PROMOSAM Excellence in Research Program, Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness Valencia, Spain ; CIBER Fisiopatología Obesidad y Nutrición, Instituto de Salud Carlos III Santiago de Compostela, Spain ; Department of Basic Psychology, Clinical and Psychobiology, Jaume I University Castellón de la Plana, Spain.
Cristina
C
Botella
alliance; augmented reality; clinically significant change; psychometrics; virtual reality