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The Experience and Effect of Adolescent to Robot Stress Disclosure: A Mixed-Methods Exploration

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Social Robotics (ICSR 2020)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 12483))

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Abstract

Social robots hold the potential to be an effective and appropriate technology in reducing stress and improving the mental health of adolescents. In order to understand the effect of adolescent-to-robot disclosure on momentary stress, we conducted an exploratory, mixed-methods study with sixty-nine US adolescents (ages 14–21) in school settings. We compared a generic, minimalist robot interaction among three different robot embodiments: physical, digital computer screen, and immersive, virtual reality. We found participants’ momentary stress levels significantly decreased across multiple interactions over time. The physical and virtual reality embodiments were most effective for stress reduction. In addition, our qualitative findings provide unique insights into the types of stressors adolescents shared with the social robots as well as their experiences with the different interaction embodiments.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98105, USA

    Elin A. Björling, Honson Ling, Simran Bhatia & Kimberly Dziubinski

Authors
  1. Elin A. Björling
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  2. Honson Ling
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  3. Simran Bhatia
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  4. Kimberly Dziubinski
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Honson Ling , Simran Bhatia or Kimberly Dziubinski .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Alan R. Wagner

  2. University of Nevada Reno, Reno, NV, USA

    David Feil-Seifer

  3. University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA

    Kerstin S. Haring

  4. University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy

    Silvia Rossi

  5. Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, USA

    Thomas Williams

  6. Wichita State University, Wichita, KS, USA

    Hongsheng He

  7. National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Shuzhi Sam Ge

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Björling, E.A., Ling, H., Bhatia, S., Dziubinski, K. (2020). The Experience and Effect of Adolescent to Robot Stress Disclosure: A Mixed-Methods Exploration. In: Wagner, A.R., et al. Social Robotics. ICSR 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12483. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62056-1_50

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62056-1_50

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-62055-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-62056-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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