But a study found that children felt more comfortable confiding in the child-sized humanoid than when responding to mental health assessments with their parents, in some cases disclosing information that they had not previously shared.
The team, from the University of Cambridge, say the findings suggest a wider role for robots in assessing children’s mental health – although they would not be a substitute for professional mental health support.
“There are times when traditional methods aren’t able to catch mental wellbeing lapses in children, ” said Nida Itrat Abbasi, the study’s first author. “We wanted to see whether robots might be able to help .”
This story is from the September 01, 2022 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the September 01, 2022 edition of The Guardian.
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