{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,19]],"date-time":"2026-06-19T04:53:35Z","timestamp":1781844815219,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":53,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,12]],"date-time":"2026-06-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1781222400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Computers"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Virtual Reality (VR) is increasingly used in clinical, educational, and supportive-care contexts, but evidence on VR-based creative interventions for vulnerable populations remains fragmented. This article presents a scoping review and proposes VR-CREAT (Virtual Reality for Creative Resilience, Expression, and Social Integration) as an HCI-oriented conceptual framework for future design and evaluation. The review maps empirical and design-oriented literature on immersive VR, creative engagement, emotional resilience, and social connectedness, distinguishing direct creative-VR evidence from partial clinical, adjacent creative, and contextual sources. The evidence suggests that creative VR may support engagement, perceived agency, emotional expression, and social connectedness, but direct clinical evidence remains limited and preliminary. VR-CREAT translates the mapped evidence into candidate mechanisms, design requirements, testable propositions, and evaluation domains for future prototyping, usability testing, and controlled studies. The framework should therefore be understood as an unvalidated design and evaluation model, not as evidence of clinical effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, or readiness for large-scale implementation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/computers15060384","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,15]],"date-time":"2026-06-15T05:59:47Z","timestamp":1781503187000},"page":"384","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["VR-Based Creative Interventions for Vulnerable Populations: A Scoping Review and HCI Design Framework"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0589-5275","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Raffaella","family":"Folgieri","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Philosophy \u201cPiero Martinetti\u201d, Universit\u00e0 degli studi di Milano, Via Festa del Perdono 7, 20122 Milan, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9452-802X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Claudio","family":"Lucchiari","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Philosophy \u201cPiero Martinetti\u201d, Universit\u00e0 degli studi di Milano, Via Festa del Perdono 7, 20122 Milan, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7704-5483","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sergej","family":"Gri\u010dar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Business and Management Sciences, University of Novo Mesto, Na Loko 2, 8000 Novo Mesto, Slovenia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2563-2533","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tea","family":"Baldigara","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, University of Rijeka, Primorska 46, p.p. 97, 51410 Opatija, Croatia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"153","DOI":"10.1016\/j.copsyc.2020.10.001","article-title":"Maximizing the impact of virtual reality exposure therapy for anxiety disorders","volume":"36","author":"Anderson","year":"2020","journal-title":"Curr. 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