Immersive and interactive technologies for adolescent identity, belonging and wellbeing: a UK scoping review

This scoping review maps the UK evidence on immersive and interactive technologies – virtual and augmented reality, and serious games – used to support adolescents’ mental health, identity development, and sense of belonging in education and youth-service settings.

Following the PRISMA-ScR framework and a preregistered protocol, it charts how these tools are designed and facilitated, what outcomes are reported, and where the evidence base is still thin. The aim is less to celebrate the technology than to ask, carefully, what it can and cannot do for young people’s wellbeing – and what would have to be true for it to help.

Mae'r adolygiad cwmpasu hwn yn mapio'r dystiolaeth o'r DU ar dechnolegau trochi a rhyngweithiol – realiti rhithwir ac estynedig, a gemau difrifol – a ddefnyddir i gefnogi iechyd meddwl pobl ifanc yn eu harddegau, datblygiad hunaniaeth, ac ymdeimlad o berthyn mewn lleoliadau addysg a gwasanaethau ieuenctid.

Gan ddilyn fframwaith PRISMA-ScR a phrotocol a gofrestrwyd ymlaen llaw, mae'n mapio sut caiff yr offer hyn eu dylunio a'u hwyluso, pa ganlyniadau a adroddir, a lle mae'r sylfaen dystiolaeth yn dal yn denau. Nid dathlu'r dechnoleg yw'r nod, ond gofyn yn ofalus beth y gall ac na all ei wneud dros les pobl ifanc – a beth fyddai'n rhaid bod yn wir er mwyn iddi helpu.