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Conversational artificial intelligence and children's social-emotional development: a scoping review.

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Τίτλος: Conversational artificial intelligence and children's social-emotional development: a scoping review.
Συγγραφείς: Bhatt AH; Department of Neonatology, Pramukhswami Medical College and Shree Krishna Hospital, Bhaikaka University, Gokalnagar, Karamsad, 388325, Gujarat, India. adityabhatt47@gmail.com., Nimbalkar SM; Department of Pediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Deoghar, Jharkhand, India., Nimbalkar AS; Department of Physiology, Pramukhswami Medical College, Bhaikaka University, Karamsad, Gujarat, India.
Πηγή: European journal of pediatrics [Eur J Pediatr] 2026 Oct 08; Vol. 185 (11). Date of Electronic Publication: 2026 Oct 08.
Τύπος έκδοσης: Journal Article; Scoping Review; Review
Γλώσσα: English
Στοιχεία περιοδικού: Publisher: Springer Verlag Country of Publication: Germany NLM ID: 7603873 Publication Model: Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1432-1076 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 03406199 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Eur J Pediatr Subsets: MEDLINE
Imprint Name(s): Publication: Berlin : Springer Verlag
Original Publication: Berlin, New York, Springer-Verlag.
Ιατρικοί όροι (MeSH): Artificial Intelligence* , Child Development* , Communication* , Social Interaction*, Humans ; Child ; Adolescent ; Generative Artificial Intelligence ; Emotions
Περίληψη: The purpose of this study is to map evidence on how children's and adolescents' interactions with conversational artificial intelligence (AI)-including generative chatbots, AI companions, voice assistants, social robots, and AI-enabled toys-relate to social and emotional development. We conducted a JBI-informed scoping review reported according to PRISMA-ScR. A three-stage search combined systematic review citation harvesting, targeted electronic searches, backward and forward citation checking, and searches of regulator and child-research organization websites through 3 August 2026. Eligible sources involved participants younger than 18 years and reported affective, relational, social communication, trust, anthropomorphism, disclosure, attachment, loneliness, well-being, or family/peer outcomes. Findings were descriptively mapped by technology and developmental domain. Forty-four eligible reports represented 34 distinct evidence sources: nine social-robot sources, four voice-assistant/smart-speaker sources, 15 generative-chatbot sources, and six AI-companion/social-chatbot sources. Social robots most consistently improved immediate engagement, acute distress, or specifically trained communication behaviors. Children differentiated AI from humans but often attributed knowledge, agency, moral standing, or relationship-like qualities. Generative systems supported emotional expression and parent-child dialogue, whereas relational framing increased human-likeness, trust, and emotional closeness. Population surveys showed substantial use of emotional support and sensitive disclosure, particularly among certain vulnerable groups. No study established a durable developmental benefit or a safe substitution for human relationships.
Conclusion: Conversational AI may offer useful, supervised scaffolding for engagement and communication, but the evidence is heterogeneous, largely short term, and insufficient to support AI as an autonomous emotional caregiver or a substitute friend.
What Is Known: • Children increasingly interact with socially responsive AI and may attribute knowledge, emotion, agency, or relational qualities to these systems.
What Is New: • Relational design increases anthropomorphism, trust, and emotional closeness; current evidence supports supervised adjunctive use but not long-term developmental benefit or replacement of human relationships.
(© 2026. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)
Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethics approval: Not applicable. This review synthesized published and publicly available data and involved no new human participants. Consent to participate and consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
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Jayathilake HM, Ma R (2026) Anthropomorphism in children’s interactions with LLM-based chatbots: a systematic review of drivers and outcomes. In: Proceedings of the 25th ACM interaction design and children conference. pp 520–536. https://doi.org/10.1145/3773077.3806126.
Kory-Westlund JM, Breazeal C (2019) Exploring the effects of a social robot’s speech entrainment and backstory on young children’s emotion, rapport, relationship, and learning. Front Robot AI 6:54. https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2019.00054. (PMID: 10.3389/frobt.2019.00054335010697806080)
Kory-Westlund JM, Breazeal C (2019) A long-term study of young children’s rapport, social emulation, and language learning with a peer-like robot playmate in preschool. Front Robot AI 6:81. https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2019.00081. (PMID: 10.3389/frobt.2019.00081335010967806079)
Girouard-Hallam LN, Streble HM, Danovitch JH (2021) Children’s mental, social, and moral attributions toward a familiar digital voice assistant. Hum Behav Emerg Technol 3:1118–1131. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.321. (PMID: 10.1002/hbe2.321)
Girouard-Hallam LN, Danovitch JH (2022) Children’s trust in and learning from voice assistants. Dev Psychol 58:646–661. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001318. (PMID: 10.1037/dev000131835343713)
Festerling J, Siraj I, Malmberg L-E (2024) Exploring children’s exposure to voice assistants and their ontological conceptualizations of life and technology. AI Soc 39:1275–1302. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-022-01555-3. (PMID: 10.1007/s00146-022-01555-3)
Andries V, Robertson J (2023) “Alexa doesn’t have that many feelings”: children’s understanding of AI through interactions with smart speakers in their homes. Comput Educ Artif Intell 5:100176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2023.100176. (PMID: 10.1016/j.caeai.2023.100176)
Hoffman A, Owen D, Calvert SL (2021) Parent reports of children’s parasocial relationships with conversational agents: trusted voices in children’s lives. Hum Behav Emerg Technol 3:606–617. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.271. (PMID: 10.1002/hbe2.271)
Van Brummelen J, Tian MC, Kelleher M, Nguyen NH (2022) Learning affects trust: design recommendations and concepts for teaching children—and nearly anyone—about conversational agents. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2209.05063.
Tang Y, Chen L, Chen Z, Chen W, Cai Y, Du Y, Yang F, Sun L (2024) EmoEden: applying generative artificial intelligence to emotional learning for children with high-functioning autism. In: Proceedings of the 2024 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642899.
Seo W, Yang C, Kim YH (2024) ChaCha: leveraging large language models to prompt children to share their emotions about personal events. In: Proceedings of the 2024 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642152.
Liu D, Zhou H, An P (2024) “When he feels cold, he goes to the seahorse”—blending generative AI into multimaterial storymaking for family expressive arts therapy. In: Proceedings of the 2024 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642852.
Mármol-Romero AM, García-Vega M, García-Cumbreras MA, Montejo-Ráez A (2025) An empathic GPT-based chatbot to talk about mental disorders with Spanish teenagers. Int J Hum Comput Interact 41:3957–3973. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2024.2344355. (PMID: 10.1080/10447318.2024.2344355)
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Contributed Indexing: Keywords: Adolescent; Anthropomorphism; Artificial intelligence; Child development; Conversational agent; Social robot
Entry Date(s): Date Created: 20261007 Date Completed: 20261008 Latest Revision: 20261007
Update Code: 20261008
DOI: 10.1007/s00431-026-07487-0
PMID: 42844463
Βάση Δεδομένων: MEDLINE
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Items – Name: Title
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  Data: Conversational artificial intelligence and children's social-emotional development: a scoping review.
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AU" term="%22Bhatt+AH%22">Bhatt AH</searchLink>; Department of Neonatology, Pramukhswami Medical College and Shree Krishna Hospital, Bhaikaka University, Gokalnagar, Karamsad, 388325, Gujarat, India. adityabhatt47@gmail.com.<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AU" term="%22Nimbalkar+SM%22">Nimbalkar SM</searchLink>; Department of Pediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Deoghar, Jharkhand, India.<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AU" term="%22Nimbalkar+AS%22">Nimbalkar AS</searchLink>; Department of Physiology, Pramukhswami Medical College, Bhaikaka University, Karamsad, Gujarat, India.
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%227603873%22">European journal of pediatrics</searchLink> [Eur J Pediatr] 2026 Oct 08; Vol. 185 (11). <i>Date of Electronic Publication: </i>2026 Oct 08.
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  Data: Journal Article; Scoping Review; Review
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  Data: English
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  Data: <i>Publisher: </i><searchLink fieldCode="PB" term="%22Springer+Verlag%22">Springer Verlag </searchLink><i>Country of Publication: </i>Germany <i>NLM ID: </i>7603873 <i>Publication Model: </i>Electronic <i>Cited Medium: </i>Internet <i>ISSN: </i>1432-1076 (Electronic) <i>Linking ISSN: </i><searchLink fieldCode="IS" term="%2203406199%22">03406199 </searchLink><i>NLM ISO Abbreviation: </i>Eur J Pediatr <i>Subsets: </i>MEDLINE
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="MM" term="%22Artificial+Intelligence%22">Artificial Intelligence*</searchLink> <br /><searchLink fieldCode="MM" term="%22Child+Development%22">Child Development*</searchLink> <br /><searchLink fieldCode="MM" term="%22Communication%22">Communication*</searchLink> <br /><searchLink fieldCode="MM" term="%22Social+Interaction%22">Social Interaction*</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="MH" term="%22Humans%22">Humans</searchLink> ; <searchLink fieldCode="MH" term="%22Child%22">Child</searchLink> ; <searchLink fieldCode="MH" term="%22Adolescent%22">Adolescent</searchLink> ; <searchLink fieldCode="MH" term="%22Generative+Artificial+Intelligence%22">Generative Artificial Intelligence</searchLink> ; <searchLink fieldCode="MH" term="%22Emotions%22">Emotions</searchLink>
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Abstract
  Group: Ab
  Data: The purpose of this study is to map evidence on how children's and adolescents' interactions with conversational artificial intelligence (AI)-including generative chatbots, AI companions, voice assistants, social robots, and AI-enabled toys-relate to social and emotional development. We conducted a JBI-informed scoping review reported according to PRISMA-ScR. A three-stage search combined systematic review citation harvesting, targeted electronic searches, backward and forward citation checking, and searches of regulator and child-research organization websites through 3 August 2026. Eligible sources involved participants younger than 18 years and reported affective, relational, social communication, trust, anthropomorphism, disclosure, attachment, loneliness, well-being, or family/peer outcomes. Findings were descriptively mapped by technology and developmental domain. Forty-four eligible reports represented 34 distinct evidence sources: nine social-robot sources, four voice-assistant/smart-speaker sources, 15 generative-chatbot sources, and six AI-companion/social-chatbot sources. Social robots most consistently improved immediate engagement, acute distress, or specifically trained communication behaviors. Children differentiated AI from humans but often attributed knowledge, agency, moral standing, or relationship-like qualities. Generative systems supported emotional expression and parent-child dialogue, whereas relational framing increased human-likeness, trust, and emotional closeness. Population surveys showed substantial use of emotional support and sensitive disclosure, particularly among certain vulnerable groups. No study established a durable developmental benefit or a safe substitution for human relationships.<br />Conclusion: Conversational AI may offer useful, supervised scaffolding for engagement and communication, but the evidence is heterogeneous, largely short term, and insufficient to support AI as an autonomous emotional caregiver or a substitute friend.<br />What Is Known: • Children increasingly interact with socially responsive AI and may attribute knowledge, emotion, agency, or relational qualities to these systems.<br />What Is New: • Relational design increases anthropomorphism, trust, and emotional closeness; current evidence supports supervised adjunctive use but not long-term developmental benefit or replacement of human relationships.<br /> (© 2026. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Competing Interests
  Group: Ab
  Data: Declarations. Ethics approval: Not applicable. This review synthesized published and publicly available data and involved no new human participants. Consent to participate and consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
– Name: Ref
  Label: References
  Group: RefInfo
  Data: Kouroupa A, Laws KR, Irvine K, Mengoni SE, Baird A, Sharma S (2022) The use of social robots with children and young people on the autism spectrum: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS ONE 17:e0269800. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269800. (PMID: <searchLink fieldCode="PM" term="%2210%2E1371%2Fjournal%2Epone%2E0269800357318059216612%22">10.1371/journal.pone.0269800357318059216612)</searchLink><br />Jayathilake HM, Ma R (2026) Anthropomorphism in children’s interactions with LLM-based chatbots: a systematic review of drivers and outcomes. In: Proceedings of the 25th ACM interaction design and children conference. pp 520–536. https://doi.org/10.1145/3773077.3806126.<br />Kory-Westlund JM, Breazeal C (2019) Exploring the effects of a social robot’s speech entrainment and backstory on young children’s emotion, rapport, relationship, and learning. Front Robot AI 6:54. https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2019.00054. (PMID: <searchLink fieldCode="PM" term="%2210%2E3389%2Ffrobt%2E2019%2E00054335010697806080%22">10.3389/frobt.2019.00054335010697806080)</searchLink><br />Kory-Westlund JM, Breazeal C (2019) A long-term study of young children’s rapport, social emulation, and language learning with a peer-like robot playmate in preschool. Front Robot AI 6:81. https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2019.00081. (PMID: <searchLink fieldCode="PM" term="%2210%2E3389%2Ffrobt%2E2019%2E00081335010967806079%22">10.3389/frobt.2019.00081335010967806079)</searchLink><br />Girouard-Hallam LN, Streble HM, Danovitch JH (2021) Children’s mental, social, and moral attributions toward a familiar digital voice assistant. Hum Behav Emerg Technol 3:1118–1131. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.321. (PMID: <searchLink fieldCode="PM" term="%2210%2E1002%2Fhbe2%2E321%22">10.1002/hbe2.321)</searchLink><br />Girouard-Hallam LN, Danovitch JH (2022) Children’s trust in and learning from voice assistants. Dev Psychol 58:646–661. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001318. (PMID: <searchLink fieldCode="PM" term="%2210%2E1037%2Fdev000131835343713%22">10.1037/dev000131835343713)</searchLink><br />Festerling J, Siraj I, Malmberg L-E (2024) Exploring children’s exposure to voice assistants and their ontological conceptualizations of life and technology. AI Soc 39:1275–1302. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-022-01555-3. (PMID: <searchLink fieldCode="PM" term="%2210%2E1007%2Fs00146-022-01555-3%22">10.1007/s00146-022-01555-3)</searchLink><br />Andries V, Robertson J (2023) “Alexa doesn’t have that many feelings”: children’s understanding of AI through interactions with smart speakers in their homes. Comput Educ Artif Intell 5:100176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2023.100176. (PMID: <searchLink fieldCode="PM" term="%2210%2E1016%2Fj%2Ecaeai%2E2023%2E100176%22">10.1016/j.caeai.2023.100176)</searchLink><br />Hoffman A, Owen D, Calvert SL (2021) Parent reports of children’s parasocial relationships with conversational agents: trusted voices in children’s lives. Hum Behav Emerg Technol 3:606–617. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.271. (PMID: <searchLink fieldCode="PM" term="%2210%2E1002%2Fhbe2%2E271%22">10.1002/hbe2.271)</searchLink><br />Van Brummelen J, Tian MC, Kelleher M, Nguyen NH (2022) Learning affects trust: design recommendations and concepts for teaching children—and nearly anyone—about conversational agents. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2209.05063.<br />Tang Y, Chen L, Chen Z, Chen W, Cai Y, Du Y, Yang F, Sun L (2024) EmoEden: applying generative artificial intelligence to emotional learning for children with high-functioning autism. 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(PMID: <searchLink fieldCode="PM" term="%2210%2E1080%2F10447318%2E2024%2E2344355%22">10.1080/10447318.2024.2344355)</searchLink><br />Shi Y, Gong L, Lu Y, Liu L, Zhang C, Zhang S, Wang L, Zhou S (2025) “I need your help!”: facilitating psychological communication between left-behind children and their parents with an AI-powered sandbox. In: Proceedings of the 2025 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems. https://doi.org/10.1145/3706598.3713660.<br />Yu Y, Sharma T, Hu M, Wang J, Wang Y (2025) Exploring parent–child perceptions on safety in generative AI: concerns, mitigation strategies, and design implications. In: 2025 IEEE symposium on security and privacy. pp 2735–2752. https://doi.org/10.1109/SP61157.2025.00090.<br />Zhang S, Li J, Cagiltay B, Kirkorian H, Mutlu B, Fawaz K (2025) A qualitative exploration of parents and their children’s uses and gratifications of ChatGPT. Fam Relat 74:1056–1071. https://doi.org/10.1111/fare.13171. 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  Data: <i>Keywords: </i>Adolescent; Anthropomorphism; Artificial intelligence; Child development; Conversational agent; Social robot
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  Data: <i>Date Created: </i>20261007 <i>Date Completed: </i>20261008 <i>Latest Revision: </i>20261007
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      – Code: eng
        Text: English
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Humans
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Child
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Adolescent
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Generative Artificial Intelligence
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Emotions
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Artificial Intelligence
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      – SubjectFull: Child Development
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      – SubjectFull: Communication
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      – SubjectFull: Social Interaction
        Type: general
    Titles:
      – TitleFull: Conversational artificial intelligence and children's social-emotional development: a scoping review.
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              Text: 2026 Oct 08
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              Y: 2026
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            – TitleFull: European journal of pediatrics
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