Description

The gender diverse population is inclined toward online expression as a way to connect with the community and to explore ways of handling stigma from harsh environments that they live in. The potential beneficial effects of conducting a support group to build resilience and self-compassion, with members from the gender minority community in a virtual environment, allowing the expression of gender identity through avatar customization and social interaction are being tested in the form of a Randomized Clinical Trial (RCT). There are three conditions: the virtual group (enrolling in a Metaverse platform with immersive features), the standard group (enrolling in an online forum platform) and the waitlist group.

The study is a between-subjects design with three arms and involves comparisons between pre-intervention, post-intervention and follow-up between: (a) Initial psychological states of the participants, (b) Mid-session, (c) After the support group sessions and (d) At follow-up (3 months). Participants will be randomly allocated to one of the three experimental arms.

For small-medium effect sizes assumed (f = 0.20), 3 groups and 4 measurements in time (pre- and post-intervention and one follow-up), a repeated measure analyzing between-within factors a minimum of 45 participants (total sample size) are needed. A target of 123 people (41 per group) has been set to allow for potential dropouts (~20%).

The group sessions should be re-run several times as the chosen Metaverse platform and the general recommendations for conducting support groups limit the number of participants to 7-8 people/group.