Virtual Reality Applications for Stress Management Training in the Military
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Stress Management Training programs are increasingly being adopted in the military field for resilience empowerment and primary stress prevention. In the last several years, advanced technologies (virtual reality in particular) have been integrated in order to develop more innovative and effective stress training programs for military personnel, including soldiers, pilots, and other aircrew professionals. This systematic review describes experimental studies that have been conducted in recent years to test the effectiveness of virtual reality-based Stress Management Training programs developed for military personnel. This promising state-of-the-art technology has the potential to be a successful new approach in empowering soldiers and increasing their resilience to stress.METHODS: To provide an overview from 2001 to 2016 of the application of virtual reality for Stress Management Training programs developed for the military, a computer-based search for relevant publications was performed in several databases. Databases used in the search were PsycINFO, Web of Science (Web of Knowledge), PubMed, and Medline. The search string was: (“Virtual Reality”) AND (“Military”) AND [“Stress Training” OR (“Stress Management”)].RESULTS: There were 14 studies that met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review.DISCUSSION: The main observation to be drawn from this review is that virtual reality can provide interactive Stress Management Training to decrease levels of perceived stress and negative affect in military personnel. This technology appears to be a promising tool for assessing individuals’ resilience to stress and for identifying the impact that stress can have on physiological reactivity and performance.Pallavicini F, Argenton L, Toniazzi N, Aceti L, Mantovani F. Virtual realtiy applications for stress management training in the military. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2016; 87(12):1021–1030.
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Resilience training and interventions, primarily those focused on coping skills and self-efficacy, can support a decrease in psychological distress and symptoms of PTSD.
“Evidence illustrates that resilience training and interventions, primarily those focused on coping skills and self-efficacy, can work to support a decrease in psychological distress and symptoms of PTSD [13-16].”
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Gawlik-Kobylińska, M., Maciejewski, P., Lebiedź, J., & Wysokińśka-Senkus, A. (2020) · International Conference on Educational and Information Technology · doi:10.1145/3383923.3383950 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Tovar, M. A., Zebley, J. A., Higgins, M., Herur-Raman, A., Zwemer, C. H., Pierce, A. Z., Ranniger, C. U., Sarani, B., & Phillips, J. P. (2023) · Prehospital and Disaster Medicine · doi:10.1017/s1049023x22002448 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
“22 Additionally, several studies have suggested that VR training is more interactive and immersive than conventional training.”
Assistance System for Rehabilitation and Valuation of Motor Skills
Quevedo, W. X., Ortiz, J. S., Velasco, P. M., et al. (2017) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-60928-7_14 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Virtual reality tools to support music students to cope with anxiety and overcome stress
Yang, P. (2024) · Education and Information Technologies · doi:10.1007/s10639-024-12464-x · Cited by 13 · see citing works
“Regarding stress reduction, the findings from this study are in line with others that have investigated the effects of VR interventions on stress reduction in humans (Morales Téllez et al., 2023; Pallavicini et al., 2016; Riva et al., 2021; Soyka et al., 2016; Villani et al., 2006).”
Mažeikienė, A., Bekešienė, S., Karčiauskaitė, D., Mazgelytė, E., Larsson, G., Petrėnas, T., Kaminskas, A., Songailienė, J., Utkus, A., Vaičaitienė, R., et al. (2021) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph182212239 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
“In a military context, stressors can come in various forms, including physical and psychological stressors [1].”
BackgroundStasi, L. L. D., Gianfranchi, E., Pérez-Garcı́a, M., & Díaz-Piedra, C. (2022) · International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics · doi:10.1016/j.ergon.2022.103295 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Horvat, M., Jović, A., & Burnik, K. (2022) · Applied Sciences · doi:10.3390/app12157864 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Steven, L., Hauw, J. K., Keane, M. B., & Gunawan, A. A. S. (2023) · Procedia Computer Science · doi:10.1016/j.procs.2023.10.596 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Lokyan, A., Baghdasaryan, S., & Hovhannisyan, H. R. (2025) · Asian Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.ajp.2025.104442 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
The effectiveness of adaptive training for stress inoculation in a simulated astronaut task
Finseth, T., Dorneich, M. C., Keren, N., Franke, W. D., Vardeman, S. B., Segal, J. I., Deick, A. F., Cavanah, E., & Thompson, K. (2021) · Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting · doi:10.1177/1071181321651241 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
McAllister, M. J., Martaindale, M. H., Gonzalez, D. E., & Case, M. J. (2022) · PubMed Central · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Investigating Spatial Representation of Learning Content in Virtual Reality Learning Environments
Belani, M., Singh, H. V., Parnami, A., & Singh, P. (2023) · IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR) · doi:10.1109/vr55154.2023.00019 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
“discuss the development of effective stress training programs for military personnel, including soldiers, pilots, and other aircrew professionals [40] Recently, the development of VR-based education environments has extended toward teaching abstract concepts and factual and conceptual content.”
BackgroundSonney, J., Björling, E. A., Rodriguez, S., & Carr, N. (2021) · Journal of Pediatric Health Care · doi:10.1016/j.pedhc.2021.01.002 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Aprendizaje adaptativo basado en Simuladores de Realidad Virtual
Vega, A. V., Madrigal, O. C., & Kugurakova, V. V. (2021) · Redalyc (Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México) · Cited by 10 · see citing works
McAllister, M. J., Martaindale, M. H., Dillard, C. C., & McCullough, R. (2024) · Stress · doi:10.1080/10253890.2024.2375588 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
“…past work has shown that VR based stress exposure/inoculation training can be used as a beneficial tool for stress inoculation training to mitigate physiological stress responses and improve performance while under stress (izard et al., 2018; Pallavicini et al., 2016; Popović et al., 2009).”
Jimènez-Barragan, M., del Pino‐Gutiérrez, A., Valmaña, G. S., Monistrol, O., Marcet, C. M., Badia, M. P., Garrido, I., Ruiz, A. C., Roda, O. P., Esquinas, C., et al. (2025) · JMIR Human Factors · doi:10.2196/71708 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
“In addition, Pallavicini et al [46] noted that the interactive elements of virtual reality contributed to enhanced user experiences, making the intervention more enjoyable and effective.”
InfluentialZechner, O., Schrom-Feiertag, H., Uhl, J. C., Nguyen, Q., Kleygrewe, L., & Tscheligi, M. (2023) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-42293-5_16 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Using Run-Time Biofeedback During Virtual Agent-Based Aggression De-escalation Training
Blankendaal, R., & Bosse, T. (2018) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-94580-4_8 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Braga, B. C., Long, J. W., Maksi, S. J., Sajjadi, P., Klippel, A., & Masterson, T. D. (2025) · Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.jneb.2025.01.010 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Virtual Reality: Challenges and Perspectives in Mental Health
Machado, S. E. D. C., Paes, F., Ferreira-Garcia, R., Gonçalves, L. L., Carta, M. G., Appolinário, J. C., & Nardi, A. E. (2025) · ALPHA PSYCHIATRY · doi:10.31083/ap47536 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Hickman, R. L., Clochesy, J. M., & Alaamri, M. M. (2021) · SAGE Open Nursing · doi:10.1177/23779608211005863 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
“…of health care, immersive virtual experiences have been shown to effectively train our military forces (Liu et al., 2018; Manojlovich et al., 2003; Pallavicini et al., 2016), first responders to natural disasters (Sermet & Demir, 2019), and flight crews (Sun et al., 2020) who are expected…”
BackgroundThe Potential of VR-based Tactical Resource Planning on Spatial Data
Medeiros, M. L., Schlager, B., Krösl, K., et al. (2022) · IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR) · doi:10.1109/vr51125.2022.00036 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
“VR is used for military purposes since decades [33,34] and range from immersive simulated battlefields [11, 56] to stress management [39].”
BackgroundIbrahim, F., Schumacher, J., Schwandt, L., & Herzberg, P. Y. (2023) · Military Psychology · doi:10.1080/08995605.2023.2258737 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
“To perform under stress in actual operations, psychological skills are trained as a complement to motoric and tactical skills (Pallavicini et al., 2016).”
Continuous Time Elicitation Through Virtual Reality to Model Affect Dynamics
Borghesi, F., Murtas, V., Mancuso, V., & Chirico, A. (2023) · Communications in computer and information science · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-49368-3_16 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
“For instance, individuals experiencing anxiety can be immersed in a virtual scenario that triggers their specific physiological markers, such as increased heart rate or perspiration [42, 43].”
Tran, T.-A., Abonyi, J., & Ruppert, T. (2024) · Production & Manufacturing Research · doi:10.1080/21693277.2024.2368232 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
“…and process vast data in the current information age (Hatfield & Haufler, 2018; Martin et al., 2020; McFarlane, 2006; Reddy, 2021), while maintaining an operational level of cognitive readiness (Grier, 2012) under negative stimuli or intense stress (Brunyé et al., 2020; Pallavicini et al., 2016).”
Using Virtual Reality to Reduce Stress in Adolescents: Mixed Methods Usability Study
Björling, E. A., Sonney, J., Zade, H., Rodriguez, S., Pullmann, M. D., & Moon, S. H. (2024) · JMIR XR and spatial computing. · doi:10.2196/49171 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
“Not only is this type of locomotion naturalistic, it has also been shown to improve mood [12].”
Background
- Authors
- Pallavicini, F., Argenton, L., Toniazzi, N., Aceti, L., & Mantovani, F.
- Affiliations
- University of Milano-Bicocca (IT)
- Venue
- Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance
- Publisher
- Aerospace Medical Association
- Published
- 2016-12-01
- Volume
- 87
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 1021-1030
- ISSN
- 2375-6314 (ISSN-L)
- 2375-6322
- OpenAlex
- W2593423182
- Cited by
- 182
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 26 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 30 · 2022: 30 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 2
- FWCI
- 7.80
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- BOA (University of Milano-Bicocca) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Control and Systems Engineering › Simulation and Modeling Applications
- Keywords
- virtual reality, stress management training, military personnel, stress resilience, stress prevention, perceived stress, negative affect, physiological reactivity, aircrew, pilot training
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Military Personnel, Stress, Psychological, User-Computer Interface, Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy
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