Table 3.

Considerations and recommendations for future research.

Research considerations	Recommendations
Internal validity	Improve upon and expand methods beyond pilot studies Use validated mental health outcome measures when advancing beyond pilot feasibility studies Account for potential mediators between socially assistive robot interactions and mental health outcomes, such as usability or technology issues
External validity/generalizability	Expand beyond dementia and developmentally disordered populations to include a range of ages and diagnoses (with special attention to those who may not currently have access to needed care) Explore use of socially assistive robots across different settings, from medical facilities to at-home robots
Inclusion of theory	Use existing literature on human-robot interactions to account for study aims and interventions design decisions Embed psychological theory into future research—such as object relations—to explore individual mental health outcomes and reactions and perceived efficacy of socially assistive robots
Dissemination and translation	Expand future research to robots that can engage in more human-like social interaction Consider close, multidisciplinary collaborations (eg, between clinicians, researchers, and robotics programmers) to allow for iterative and responsive intervention development
Cultural concerns	Investigate the impact of sociocultural beliefs and differences related to technology comfort, linguistic challenges, and interest in socially assistive robots for mental health Focus on specific mental health populations that might be uniquely suited to benefit from socially assistive robots