ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Mental Health and Wellbeing in Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1618968
This article is part of the Research TopicLong-Term Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health and Well-Being in Education: Underlying Mechanisms and Intervention StrategiesView all 3 articles
Flow-Mediated Effects of Virtual Reality on Post-Pandemic Resilience in Mexican University Students: A Cross-Sectional PLS-SEM Study
Provisionally accepted
- University of Monterrey, San Pedro Garza García, Mexico
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The present study aims to examine the association between Virtual Reality (VR) usage in higher education and Mexican university students' emotional resilience, and to test whether flow experiences mediate this association. A cross-sectional survey of 220 students from two Mexican universities was analyzed with Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). VR usage exhibited a direct, positive association with resilience (β = 0.45, p < .01), an effect that was partially transmitted through flow (indirect β = 0.30, p < .01). Flow fully mediated the inverse associations between VR usage and anxiety, stress, and depression, and partially mediated the positive association with well-being. The reflective constructs demonstrated excellent reliability (α ≥ .94) and convergent validity (AVE ≥ .79). VR usage was operationalized as a formative composite derived from two complementary indicators (prior VR exposure and gaming frequency); this specification captured technological familiarity but will benefit from further refinement in forthcoming multi-institution studies. Although the data are cross-sectional, the strength and consistency of the observed pathways provide a solid foundation for longitudinal and experimental follow-ups. Overall, the findings suggest that immersive educational designs capable of reliably eliciting flow may bolster students' capacity to navigate post-pandemic challenges.
Keywords: virtual reality, flow experience, psychological resilience, higher education, PLS-SEM
Received: 27 Apr 2025; Accepted: 04 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Guerra-Tamez. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Cristobal Rodolfo Guerra-Tamez, University of Monterrey, San Pedro Garza García, Mexico
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