An Exploratory Design of Stress Relief Chatbots for Taiwanese Adolescents

Abstract

Currently, there is a growing interest in the application of chatbots for mental health support, both for adults as well as children. Multiple studies have been done in regards to the domain of chatbot for mental support for adolescent youths, but there is a dearth of knowledge in regards to culture-specific needs as most related studies have been done with a western audience in mind. This study, therefore, tries to examine what are the particular needs of Taiwanese adolescents and how to go about designing a stress support chatbot, by the way of an exploratory design study. Taiwanese middle school counselors were interviewed to provide insights for the development of a prototype chatbot that utilized Google Dialogflow's natural language processing to identify stressors based on keywords and give support to the Taiwanese adolescent target group. The analysis of both qualitative and quantitative results collected from user testing revealed that due to the power distance that is prevalent within Taiwanese society, a chatbot’s persona determines the role it plays and the needs it can fulfill for Taiwanese adolescents looking for stress support. Quantitative findings further detail what chatbot interactions are desired user experience in the context of stress relief for Taiwanese adolescents.