Author(s)

Yixue Zhang ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ Department of Nursing, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China

Corresponding Author

Yixue Zhang

ABSTRACT

This scoping review was conducted to systematically synthesize the research progress on virtual reality technology in psychological interventions for adolescent cancer patients, clarify the content, types, outcome indicators and effects of such interventions, and provide a reference for improving the psychological well-being of this patient population. Relevant studies were systematically searched from PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Wanfang Database, with the search period ranging from the inception of each database to January 17, 2026, and the included literature was analyzed and summarized. A total of 10 studies were finally included, which revealed that the applied virtual reality technologies covered non-immersive and immersive types, virtual reality relaxation therapy served as the primary intervention content, and the main outcome indicators involved anxiety, depression, fear, pain and tension. The results indicate that psychological interventions based on virtual reality technology for adolescent cancer patients feature diverse contents and broad application prospects, and can effectively improve the psychological health status of these patients; however, there is considerable heterogeneity in the intervention content elements and outcome measurement tools across existing studies, and there are certain limitations in their practical application. Future research should fully consider the unique characteristics of adolescent cancer patients and explore standardized implementation procedures for the application of virtual reality technology in their psychological interventions.

KEYWORDS

Virtual Reality; Adolescent Cancer; Psychological Nursing; Scoping Review

CITE THIS PAPER

Yixue Zhang. Virtual Reality Technology in Psychological Interventions for Adolescent Cancer Patients: A Scoping Review. Applied & Educational Psychology (2026). Vol. 7, No.1, 75-83. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/appep.2026.070109.

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