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Extreme Psychology and Personal Safety
2025. Vol. 2, no. 2, 61–81
doi:10.17759/epps.2025020204
ISSN: 3034-3666 (online)

Psychological safety of students with disabilities when using virtual technologies in physical education classes

 
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Abstract

Context and relevance. Within the framework of the UNESCO project “Education for All”, special educational projects will be developed for people with disabilities. Modern technologies, including virtual reality, are used to implement such programs. There is a need to assess the psychological safety of using such technologies. Hypothesis. Conducting physical education classes using virtual reality technologies for students with disabilities does not violate their psychological safety. Methods and materials. The study involved 140 college students, of whom 70 students had health restrictions (based on which they were exempted by the medical commission from basic physical education classes) and 70 healthy students. Students with health restrictions were divided into 2 groups by randomization: experimental and control, 35 people each. Methods: questionnaire “Emotional safety of the environment”, express diagnostics of psychological safety of the individual, questionnaire of the feeling of security, questionnaire “Quality of interpersonal relationships in the educational environment”, methods of mathematical statistics (U criterion Mann Whitney, T criterion Wilcoxon. Training was conducted with the experimental group, 4 lessons, 1 time per week, VR simulators were used: archery (VR: Mediaeval archery), games of Bowling and Darts, educational simulators Boxing and Swimming, a simulator of the game of volleyball and basketball (the All-in-one sports application), games with rackets (First Person Tennis). Results. No differences were found between students with disabilities and ordinary students in the indicators of the safety of the educational environment and the feeling of security. 2 differences were found in the scales of safety of relationships: increased conflict with adults and decreased tolerance with peers. In the process of physical education classes, the indicators of personal safety improve: trust in people increases (trend) (trend), value-semantic security increases reliably and the risk of post-traumatic growth decreases. Confidence in control of the surrounding world increases. Interpersonal communication indicators are restored: conflict, aggressiveness and manipulative attitude decrease in relationships with adults (trend). In relationships with peers, hostility and aggressiveness decrease (at the trend level). Conclusions. Conducting physical education classes in virtual reality is safe for students with disabilities.

General Information

Keywords: psychological safety, virtual reality, physical education, students with disabilities

Journal rubric: Psychological Safety of the Educational Environment

Article type: scientific article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/epps.2025020204

Funding. The study was carried out with the support of the Russian Science Foundation, project No. 25-28-01251 “Physical education in virtual reality as a factor in increasing the individual and personal safety of students with health problems.”

Acknowledgements. The authors would like to thank K.V. Zyazkina and the project manager A.V. Litvinova for their help in collecting data for the study.

Received 23.04.2025

Accepted

Published

For citation: Berezina, T.N., Buzanov, K.E. (2025). Psychological safety of students with disabilities when using virtual technologies in physical education classes. Extreme Psychology and Personal Safety, 2(2), 61–81. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.17759/epps.2025020204

© Berezina T.N., Buzanov K.E., 2025

License: CC BY-NC 4.0

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Information About the Authors

Tatiana N. Berezina, Doctor of Psychology, Professor, Professor of the Department of Scientific Foundations of Extreme Psychology, Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, Moscow, Russian Federation, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8188-237X, e-mail: tanberez@list.ru

Kirill E. Buzanov, graduate, Engineering and Economics Institute, National Research University “Moscow Power Engineering Institute” (INEI NRU MPEI), project employee, Moscow State University of psychology and education, Moscow, Russian Federation, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3219-0043, e-mail: kirilla4@mail.ru

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