Abstract

Automated conversational agents (CAs) emerged as a promising solution in mental health interventions among young people. Therefore, the objective of this scoping review is to examine the current state of research into fully automated CAs mediated interventions for the emotional component of mental health among young people. Selected databases were searched in March 2023. Included studies were primary research, reporting on development, feasibility/usability, or evaluation of fully automated CAs as a tool to improve the emotional component of mental health among young population. Twenty-five studies were included (N = 1707). Most automated CAs applications were standalone preventions targeting anxiety and depression. Automated CAs were predominantly AI-based chatbots, using text as the main communication channel. Overall, the results of the current scoping review showed that automated CAs mediated interventions for emotional problems are acceptable, engaging and with high usability. However, the results for clinical efficacy are far less conclusive, since almost half of evaluation studies reported no significant effect on emotional mental health outcomes. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that there is a pressing need to improve the existing automated CAs applications to increase their efficacy as well as conducting more rigorous methodological research in this area.

Details

Title
Use of automated conversational agents in improving young population mental health: a scoping review
Author
Balan, Raluca 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Dobrean, Anca 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Poetar, Costina R. 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 Babeș-Bolyai University, The International Institute for the Advanced Studies of Psychotherapy and Applied Mental Health, Cluj-Napoca, Romania (GRID:grid.7399.4) (ISNI:0000 0004 1937 1397); Babeş-Bolyai University, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania (GRID:grid.7399.4) (ISNI:0000 0004 1937 1397) 
Pages
75
Publication year
2024
Publication date
Dec 2024
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
23986352
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2968660304
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2024. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.