Immersive and interactive technologies for adolescent identity, belonging and wellbeing: a UK scoping review

This scoping review maps the UK evidence on immersive and interactive technologies – virtual and augmented reality, and serious games – used to support adolescents’ mental health, identity development, and sense of belonging in education and youth-service settings.

Following the PRISMA-ScR framework and a preregistered protocol, it charts how these tools are designed and facilitated, what outcomes are reported, and where the evidence base is still thin. The aim is less to celebrate the technology than to ask, carefully, what it can and cannot do for young people’s wellbeing – and what would have to be true for it to help.