University Students’ Opinions on Using Intelligent Agents to Cope with Stress and Anxiety in Social Situations

Abstract

In recent years, university students have reported increased symptoms of stress and anxiety, which can negatively impact their mental well-being and academic performance. However, many students do not seek or receive support for these challenges. With recent technological advances in intelligent agents and their expanding capabilities, there is a potential for intelligent agents to extend and complement mental health care interventions and enhance access to care. Recognizing that there are many further steps to developing user-centred evidence-based approaches for mental health challenges, as a first step to developing effective interventions using intelligent agents, it is important to identify design elements and functionalities that are perceived as engaging and useful by students. In this paper, we present the findings of an online survey with 1054 undergraduate students to explore students’ perceptions of, and preferences for, using different types of intelligent agents (e.g., virtual agents, social robots, etc.) to support their mental well-being, specifically to cope with feelings of stress and anxiety in social situations typically encountered within a university context (e.g., engaging in a group discussion, delivering presentations, expressing opinions, etc.). Students were asked to complete a questionnaire to explore their experience of stress and anxiety in the university context, as well as their perceptions of, and preferences for using different intelligent agents as assistive tools to cope with such feelings. The results provide insights into different design elements as well as social and technical capabilities to consider when designing intelligent agents to help address stress and anxiety among university students.