Gameplay with a Socially Supportive Virtual Robot Enhances Children's Global Self-Esteem, Peer Relationships, Interest and Engagement

Self-esteem plays a crucial role in children’s psycho- logical well-being and social development. However, traditional interventions cannot provide consistent and engaging support. Recently, game-based learning has shown promise in fostering self- reliance and social confidence. Notably, socially supportive robots, offering consistent, adaptive, and peer-like reinforcement, have emerged as potential tools for enhancing children’s self-esteem. Nevertheless, their effectiveness in improving self-esteem remains unexplored. In this study, we investigated the role of a socially supportive virtual robot in boosting children’s self-esteem, so- cial engagement, and motivation through game-based interactions. Specifically, we examined whether positive reinforcement from the robot influenced children’s global and social self-esteem, the quality and quantity of their friendships, and sustained engagement with the game. Twenty-three children in India participated in a video game with and without the virtual robot across three 30-minute sessions over a month. Results indicated that children who inter- acted with the virtual robot showed significant improvement in global self-esteem, enhanced quantity and quality of friendships, and sustained interest and enjoyment in the task. However, no considerable change was observed in social self-esteem between the experimental and control conditions. These findings provide valuable insights into the potential of robot-mediated interventions for boosting children’s self-esteem and social engagement. Received 6 March 2025; accepted 25 July 2025. Date of publication 13 August 2025; date of current version 21 August 2025. This article was rec- ommended for publication by Associate Editor M. Lagomarsino and Editor A. Peer upon evaluation of the reviewers’ comments. This work was supported in part by the Innovation Platform for Society 5.0 at MEXT Japan under Grant JPMXP0518071489 and in part by JSPS KAKENHI under Grant JP24H00165, Grant 21H04418, and Grant 22H00494. (Corresponding author: Devasena Pasupuleti.) This work involved human subjects or animals in its research. Approval of all ethical and experimental procedures and protocols was granted by the Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University (Grant No. 31-5-3), and conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (DOH). Devasena Pasupuleti, Kazuki Sakai, Hiroshi Ishiguro, and Yuichiro Yoshikawa are with the Department of Systems Innovation, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, Suita 565-0871, Japan (e-mail: deavasena.pasupuleti@irl.sys.es.osaka-u.ac.jp; sakai.kazuki@irl.sys.es.osaka- u.ac.jp; ishiguro@sys.es.osaka-u.ac.jp; yoshikawa@irl.sys.es.osaka-u.ac.jp). Hamed Mahzoon is with the Institute for Open and Transdisciplinary Research Initiatives, Osaka University, Suita 565-0871, Japan (e-mail: mahzoon@irl.sys.es.osaka-u.ac.jp). Yaswanth Bangi and Rajeevlochana G. Chittawadigi are with the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Bangalore 560035, India (e-mail: yassuvktb@gmail.com; rg_chittawadigi@blr.amrita.edu). This article has supplementary downloadable material available at https://doi.org/10.1109/LRA.2025.3598645, provided by the authors. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LRA.2025.3598645