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Article published In: Envisioning Social Robotics: Current challenges and new interdisciplinary methodologies
Edited by Glenda Hannibal and Astrid Weiss
[Interaction Studies 21:1] 2020
► pp. 57–84

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Closeness, trust, and perceived social support in child-robot relationship formation

Development and validation of three self-report scales

 | University of Amsterdam
 | University of Amsterdam
 | University of Amsterdam
 | University of Amsterdam
 | University of Amsterdam
Published online: 24 January 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/is.18052.str
Abstract
Social robots and their interactions with children are becoming increasingly sophisticated, with the emergence of child-robot relationships as a likely result. However, adequate measurement instruments that tap into concepts associated with child-robot relationship formation are scarce. We aimed to develop three measures that can be used to assess children’s closeness to, trust in, and perceived social support from, a social robot. We established the validity and reliability of these measures among 87 Dutch children aged 7 to 11 years old. Because of their shortness, the measures can efficiently be applied by scholars aiming to gain insight into the general process of child-robot relationship formation and its specific sub-processes, that is, the emergence of closeness, trust, and perceived social support.
Article outline
  • Current practice and measurement issues
  • Key concepts of interpersonal relationship formation
  • Method
    • Scale development
      • Closeness
      • Trust
      • Perceived social support
    • Scale validation
      • Validation measures
        • Agreeableness
        • Social anxiety
        • Attachment
        • Perceived similarity
        • Fear
    • Data collection
      • Participants
      • Procedure
  • Results
    • Unidimensional confirmatory factor analysis
    • Multidimensional confirmatory factor analysis
    • Reliability analysis and item fit
    • Concurrent validity
  • Discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
References (91)
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Ligthart, Mike E. U., Mark A. Neerincx & Koen V. Hindriks
2022. Getting acquainted: First steps for child-robot relationship formation. Frontiers in Robotics and AI 9 DOI logo
Ligthart, Mike E. U., Mark A. Neerincx & Koen V. Hindriks
2023. It Takes Two: Using Co-creation to Facilitate Child-Robot Co-regulation. ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction 12:4 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Ligthart, Mike E.U., Mark A. Neerincx & Koen V. Hindriks
2022. 2022 17th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), ► pp. 80 ff. DOI logo
Stower, Rebecca, Rania Abdelghani, Marisa Tschopp, Keegan Evangelista, Mohamed Chetouani & Arvid Kappas
2022. Exploring space for robot mistakes in child robot interactions. Interaction Studies. Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems 23:2 ► pp. 243 ff. DOI logo
van Straten, Caroline L., Jochen Peter, Rinaldo Kühne & Alex Barco
2022. On sharing and caring: Investigating the effects of a robot's self-disclosure and question- asking on children's robot perceptions and child-robot relationship formation. Computers in Human Behavior 129 ► pp. 107135 ff. DOI logo
van Straten, Caroline L., Jochen Peter, Rinaldo Kühne & Alex Barco
2022. The wizard and I: How transparent teleoperation and self-description (do not) affect children’s robot perceptions and child-robot relationship formation. AI & SOCIETY 37:1 ► pp. 383 ff. DOI logo
Calvo-Barajas, Natalia, Maha Elgarf, Giulia Perugia, Ana Paiva, Christopher Peters & Ginevra Castellano
2021. Hurry Up, We Need to Find the Key! How Regulatory Focus Design Affects Children’s Trust in a Social Robot. Frontiers in Robotics and AI 8 DOI logo
Calvo-Barajas, Natalia, Giulia Perugia & Ginevra Castellano
2021. Interaction Design and Children, ► pp. 537 ff. DOI logo
de Jong, Chiara, Jochen Peter, Rinaldo Kuhne, Caroline van Straten & Alex Barco
2021. 2021 30th IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), ► pp. 598 ff. DOI logo
Duradoni, Mirko, Giulia Colombini, Paola Andrea Russo & Andrea Guazzini
2021. Robotic Psychology: A PRISMA Systematic Review on Social-Robot-Based Interventions in Psychological Domains. J 4:4 ► pp. 664 ff. DOI logo
Peter, Jochen, Rinaldo Kühne & Alex Barco
2021. Can social robots affect children's prosocial behavior? An experimental study on prosocial robot models. Computers in Human Behavior 120 ► pp. 106712 ff. DOI logo
Rheman, Jennifer & Marlena R. Fraune
2021. Companion of the 2021 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, ► pp. 417 ff. DOI logo
Stower, Rebecca, Natalia Calvo-Barajas, Ginevra Castellano & Arvid Kappas
2021. A Meta-analysis on Children’s Trust in Social Robots. International Journal of Social Robotics 13:8 ► pp. 1979 ff. DOI logo
Zguda, Paulina, Anna Kołota, Gentiane Venture, Bartlomiej Sniezynski & Bipin Indurkhya
2021. Exploring the Role of Trust and Expectations in CRI Using In-the-Wild Studies. Electronics 10:3 ► pp. 347 ff. DOI logo
de Jong, Chiara, Rinaldo Kühne, Jochen Peter, Caroline L. van Straten & Alex Barco
2020. Intentional acceptance of social robots: Development and validation of a self-report measure for children. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 139 ► pp. 102426 ff. DOI logo
Schneider, Benoît
2020. À propos du numérique : des relations dynamiques et des questions sociétales. Enfance N° 3:3 ► pp. 279 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 17 march 2026. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

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