Poster #117 - The Effects of a Socially Assistive Robot on Children’s Stress

• In Event: 2-002 - Special Poster Session 05 with Continental Breakfast Reception
  In Poster Session: PS 05 - Interdisciplinary Section

Integrative Statement

The unique social stressors introduced during middle childhood make this a period of particular vulnerability to excessive levels of stress. Alongside their exposure to new stressors, children in this developmental stage are gaining new independence and looking beyond their parents for support (Kerns, Tomich, & Kim, 2006). Chronic exposure to stress—even normative stress—at a young age can have severe psychiatric and physical complications in both the short- and long-term when not properly addressed (Lau, 2002). There is thus a pressing need for efficient approaches to alleviating stress in middle childhood on a large scale.

Socially assistive robots (SARs) represent a promising potential intervention. SARs are designed to provide aide or comfort through interactions while remaining easy to transport and disseminate (Rabbitt, Kazdin, & Scassellati, 2015). Recently, SARs have becoming increasingly common in mental healthcare, including in primary schools (Rabbitt et al., 2015). A handful of studies provide preliminary evidence for the benefits of SARs; however, in general, the literature is sparse and marred by methodological limitations (Crossman, Kazdin, & Kitt, 2018). Furthermore, some researchers have warned that these robots may be more harmful than beneficial if children use SARs as a crutch or mistakenly attribute sentience to the robots (Normile, 2014). To best harness the potential of these robots, it is important to empirically explore their effects.

The goal of the present study was to test the potential of SARs as an intervention for stress in middle childhood. This study examined the effects of the presence of an SAR during the Trier Social Stress Test for Children on self-reported measures of stress in a non-clinical sample of 70 children from 7 to 10 years old. Contrary to our predictions, this study did not detect any effects of the robot’s presence on stress during this task. Instead, our primary analysis showed that, relative to a waiting control condition, the robot’s presence led to a decrease in positive affect following the task, F(1, 67) = 4.45, p = .039, = .062. However, this difference did not hold when accounting for baseline group differences, p < .05.

Although we did not detect an effect of the robot’s presence on children’s self-reported stress, we discovered several potential targets for future research. Exploratory analyses of the nature of children’s interactions with the SAR during the stressful task found that increased prosocial behaviors (e.g., gaze or physical contact) towards the SAR were correlated with higher levels of parent-reported social anxiety, r(30) = .44, p = .014. Future research might harness the SAR’s ability to elicit prosocial behaviors, particularly within this population. Additional post-hoc analyses determined that, in participants who completed the full task, the SAR’s presence led to significant improvements in pleasure in anticipation of the task, F(1, 65) = 4.33, p = .041, = .062. Future research could expound on this to investigate the optimal timing for intervention with an SAR. This study indicates several future avenues to consider and emphasizes the importance of further evaluation of SARs before implementing them in practice.

Authors

• Elizabeth Rachael Kitt, Yale University
  Presenting Author

• Molly K Crossman, Yale University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Angela Matijczak, Yale University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Gillian Burns, Yale University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Alan E Kazdin, Yale University
  Non-Presenting Author