Psychological Effects of poverty on child development: A field study and virtual reality examination

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K20868
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 10:Psychology and related fields
• Research Institution: Kochi University of Technology
• Principal Investigator: Sakaki Michiko 高知工科大学, 総合研究所, 客員准教授 (50748671)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 繁桝 博昭 高知工科大学, 情報学群, 教授 (90447855)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-07-30 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 貧困 / 仮想現実

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The current project aimed a) to examine the effects of poverty on children’s emotional development and b) to address whether the virtual reality (VR) can be used to enhance knowledge acquisition and empathy for people from other countries. We examined the development of emotions in a developed country first, followed by data collection from three schools in Nigeria that differ in students’ socioeconomical background. We found that poverty has significant impacts on children, especially a physiological marker of stress. We also conducted a series of experiments where participants explored the VR environment to experience life in other countries. We found that VR may help acquire knowledge about other countries beyond typical 2D environments.

Free Research Field

教育心理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

心理学研究のほとんどが，教育，経済，産業水準の高い民主主義の国で行われてきた。こうした少数の国で得られた結果が，発展途上国に適応できるかどうかはほとんど検討されてこなかった。本研究では貧困というテーマに焦点を当て，アフリカのナイジェリアでデータを取得した。この点で，心理学の領域の抱える上記の問題に貢献するものである。また本研究の結果は，途上国と先進国の分断を減らすために仮想現実が寄与できる可能性を示唆するものである。