Sensipal Plush: Sensory Therapy for State Anxiety in Emerging Adulthood with Social Anxiety

Authors

  • Erica Eleonora Universitas Ciputra Surabaya
  • Rania Rania Universitas Ciputra Surabaya
  • Jonathan Jonathan Universitas Ciputra Surabaya
  • Meilani Sandjaja Universitas Ciputra Surabaya
  • Prisca Eunike Universitas Ciputra Surabaya

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.59141/jrssem.v5i10.1473

Keywords:

SensiPal, social anxiety, emerging adulthood, sensory therapy, state anxiety

Abstract

Social anxiety disorder is highly prevalent during emerging adulthood (18-25 years). This condition triggers an emotional surge of state anxiety directly when individuals face pressure in social situations. This study presents the design and tests the effectiveness of SensiPal, a Huggable Sensory Therapy Plush prototype integrating Deep Pressure Therapy (DPT), tactile stimulation, and white noise to reduce state anxiety in social situations. Utilizing a one-group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design, this field experiment involved 30 participants in a public location. Anxiety levels were measured using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory State Form (STAI-S). Paired Sample t-Test results demonstrated a significant decrease in the average state anxiety score from 21.20 to 15.57 following a 12-minute SensiPal intervention. An effect size of 1.455 indicates a very strong intervention impact. In conclusion, SensiPal is proven effective as a portable coping mechanism supporting immediate independent emotion regulation (self-soothing) in stressful social settings.

Downloads

Published

2026-05-30

How to Cite

Eleonora, E., Rania, R., Jonathan, J., Sandjaja, M., & Eunike , P. (2026). Sensipal Plush: Sensory Therapy for State Anxiety in Emerging Adulthood with Social Anxiety. Journal Research of Social Science, Economics, and Management, 5(10), 12213–12223. https://doi.org/10.59141/jrssem.v5i10.1473

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 10 (2026): Journal Research of Social Science, Economics, and Management

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Erica Eleonora, Rania Rania, Jonathan Jonathan, Meilani Sandjaja, Prisca Eunike

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  • Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International. that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  • Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  • Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.