UA to Test Virtual Environments for Preventing Marijuana Use by Youth

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Marijuana is the most commonly used and misused drug among adolescents and the primary drug of choice for adolescents entering substance abuse treatment, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Few studies of prevention and intervention of adolescent marijuana use have included contextual cues, like environments and interactions, a gap in literature Dr. Amy Traylor, assistant professor of social work at The University of Alabama, hopes to fill with a virtual reality-based study of adolescents’ reactions to contextual cues.

Traylor was recently awarded a $275,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to create and test virtual environments to identify common cannabis-related proximal and contextual cues adolescents encounter. The virtual environments will be constructed after conducting focus groups with adolescents and staff members at The Bridge, a substance abuse treatment facility for children ages 12-18 in Tuscaloosa.

“We have great adult environments, but, for a kid, they wouldn’t be very realistic,” Traylor said. “The focus group will help us get a better idea for what a pot-smoking environment is for these kids. Once we create it, we’ll see if it elicits the reactions we want, like what drives their cravings. Further down the road, we could look at using it in treatment situations.”

Traylor hopes to begin focus groups at The Bridge in October.

Traylor also will begin a partnership with the UA College of Engineering to help design the virtual environments. Since the virtual reality work won’t begin until the second year of the project, Traylor will have time to construct the environments.

“We’ll be using newer technology for VR delivery—namely the Oculus Rift—and I’m super excited about that,” Traylor said.