Work

Designing Robots to Support Parent-Child Connections: Opportunities Through Robot-Mediated Communication

Year: 2026

Type: conference-paper

Abstract: The sense of family connectedness may support positive outcomes including individual well-being, resilience, and healthy family functioning. However, as technologies advance, they often replace human-human interactions instead of nurturing them. In this work, we investigate how robot-facilitated communication tools might instead create new opportunities for family connection. We conducted two studies with families with children aged 5-12. We first explored the design space through in-home technology probe sessions with six families. These probes inspired us to explore two key interaction design dimensions: the robot’s behavior strategy (passive, reactive, proactive) and the mode of communication (synchronous, asynchronous). We then conducted a laboratory study with 20 families to examine how the two dimensions shaped parent-child interaction and connection. Our findings characterize how parents and children appropriated robot-mediated exchanges, the tensions they experienced around initiative, timing, and privacy, and the opportunities they envisioned for supporting everyday connectedness.

Source: ACM International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC)

DOI: 10.1145/3773077.3810976

Authors: Michael F Xu, Bengisu Cagiltay, Yaxin Hu, Anjun Zhu, Bilge Mutlu

Institutions: University of Wisconsin–Madison, Koç University, Simon Fraser University

Language: English

Topic: Social Robot Interaction and HRI

Subfield: Social Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Funders: National Science Foundation, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Award: Collaborative Research: HCC: Medium: Designing Social Companion Robots for Long-term Interaction