A pilot RCT of virtual reality job interview training in transition-age youth on the autism spectrum.
Ten hours of VR job-interview practice lifts real interview performance for autistic teens even when they still feel nervous.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Higgins et al. (2021) tested virtual reality job interview training in high-schoolers with autism. The teens practiced ten hours of VR interviews at school while a control group got usual transition services.
Trainers scored the final live interview without knowing who got VR. The team also asked teens how anxious and confident they felt.
What they found
The VR group looked and sounded better in real interviews. Blind raters gave them higher skill scores than the control group.
Feelings did not change. Both groups still reported the same high anxiety and low confidence after training.
How this fits with other research
Smith et al. (2021) ran almost the same RCT the same year. They also saw better interview skills, but they found lower anxiety and more job offers. The difference: Smith’s teachers added brief coping-skills coaching between VR rounds.
McGonigle et al. (2014) tried VR-JIT first with adults in a lab. Skills improved, but the gain was smaller. Moving the program into high-school classrooms and adding more practice trials likely explains the bigger payoff now.
Miller et al. (2020) and Ferris et al. (2025) show VR can teach other life skills to autistic kids. Airport and street-crossing programs also used short, repeated VR sessions and saw real-world success.
Why it matters
You can run VR job interviews on a school laptop and see clear skill gains in ten hours. Keep the coping-skills piece if you want to cut anxiety too. Track actual interview ratings, not just student self-report, to spot real progress.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Adolescents on the autism spectrum may have difficulty obtaining and maintaining employment. One particular obstacle for adolescents on the autism spectrum is the job interview. The purpose of the current pilot randomized controlled trial is to examine the preliminary effectiveness and feasibility of a virtual reality job interview tool (VR-JIT) in improving job interview performance in adolescents on the autism spectrum. METHOD: The study was implemented in a high school setting. Fourteen adolescents on the autism spectrum were randomly divided into two groups: an experimental group (n = 7) and a services as usual (SAU) control group (n = 7). The intervention group received 10 h of VR-JIT, which includes interviewing with a virtual human and receiving feedback. All participants performed a video-recorded mock job interview at pre-test and post-test, which was rated by blinded assessors to track interview skills. Students filled out questionnaires related to job interviewing anxiety and self-efficacy pre- and post- intervention. Feasibility metrics were recorded as well. RESULTS: Repeated Measures ANOVA revealed improved a metric of job interview performance in the experimental group following the intervention compared to the control group, indicated by medium to large effect sizes. However, perceptions of anxiety and self-efficacy did not improve following the intervention. Students reported that the intervention was easy to use and enjoyable. CONCLUSIONS: The current pilot study indicates preliminary evidence of the VR-JIT's effectiveness in improving measures of job interview performance in adolescents on the autism spectrum, even though their own perceptions did not improve. Importantly, the VR-JIT intervention was implemented in a school setting, demonstrating feasibility in its adoption as part of curriculum to help improve employment outcomes in transition age youth on the autism spectrum.
Research in autism spectrum disorders, 2021 · doi:10.1002/pits.21718