The Influence of a Socially Assistive Robot on Mood, Anxiety, and Arousal in Children
The Influence of a Socially Assistive Robot on Mood, Anxiety, and Arousal in Children
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DOI：
10.1037/pro0000177
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发表时间：
2018-02-01
影响因子：
1.5
通讯作者：
Kitt, Elizabeth R.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Crossman, Molly K.;Kazdin, Alan E.;Kitt, Elizabeth R.
社会辅助机器人（SAR）是一种很有前途的资源，可用于改善儿童的心理健康和大规模减轻痛苦。然而，SAR对临床相关领域的影响尚未得到很好的确定。因此，我们的目标是提供SAR缓解儿童临床相关症状能力的概念验证。这样的演示可能会成为建立SAR在精神卫生保健中的作用的基础。我们研究了87名6至9岁儿童在暴露于压力任务后与SAR的互动对情绪，焦虑和唤醒的影响。参与者在与SAR互动、与SAR关闭互动或安静等待之前完成了特里尔儿童社会压力测试。参与者完成了基线和后测的状态焦虑和情绪的措施，并在5个时间点收集唾液皮质醇。与机器人互动的儿童比两种控制条件下的儿童表现出更大的积极情绪增加，但在消极情绪，焦虑或唤醒方面与控制参与者没有差异。SAR可以通过增强积极情绪来传达对儿童心理健康的益处。未来的研究应该检查SAR促进积极情绪的过程，以及这种效果最有效的情况。虽然是初步的，但这些发现表明，SAR可能通过增加积极情绪来提供一种高效的方式来缓解儿童的临床症状。
Socially assistive robots (SARs) represent a promising resource for efforts to improve children's mental health and alleviate suffering on a large scale. However, the effects of SARs on clinically relevant domains are not yet well established. Our goal was therefore to provide a proof-of-concept demonstration of the capacity for SARs to alleviate clinically relevant symptoms in children. Such a demonstration might then serve as the foundation for efforts to establish the role of SARs in mental health care. We examined the influence of interactions with an SAR on mood, anxiety, and arousal in a sample of 87 children between the ages of 6 and 9, following exposure to a stressful task. Participants completed the Trier Social Stress Test for Children before interacting with the SAR, interacting with the SAR turned off, or waiting quietly. Participants completed baseline and posttest measures of state anxiety and mood, and salivary cortisol was collected at 5 time points. Children who interacted with the robot showed greater increases in positive mood than children in either of the two control conditions, but did not differ from control participants in terms of negative mood, anxiety, or arousal. SARs may convey benefits for children's mental health by augmenting positive mood. Future research should examine the processes through which SARs promote positive emotions and the circumstances under which that effect is most potent. Although preliminary, these findings suggest that SARs may provide a highly efficient way to alleviate clinical symptoms in children by increasing positive mood.