Purrble, a socially assistive robot, reduces emotion regulation difficulties, depression, and anxiety
Submitted by A. Jess Williams
Mental health difficulties and self-harm are common among LGBTQ+ young people. Supporting young people’s emotion regulation may help to reduce risk and improve mental wellbeing. Purrble, a socially assistive robot, has been designed to help with in-the-moment emotion regulation through self-directed interaction, but had yet to be tested.
In a randomised controlled trial, 153 LGBTQ+ young people aged 16–25 years who had recently thought about self-harming were stratified by gender identity (cisgender vs gender-diverse) and randomly assigned to either Purrble + safety planning or safety planning alone. Outcomes were assessed over 13 weeks.
Compared to the group who only received safety planning, young people in the Purrble group reported significantly fewer emotion regulation difficulties at follow-up, as well as significantly lower levels of depression and anxiety. However, Purrble did not have a significant effect on self-harm thoughts or behaviours.
These findings suggest that Purrble may be a scalable and accessible intervention for improving emotion regulation and generating downstream mental health benefits among LGBTQ+ young people.
I’m a young person – what does this mean for me?
Managing self-harm can be really tricky, with young people often stating that they need to be in the right mindset to reduce these thoughts and behaviours. By engaging with Purrble, you have a moment to ground yourself and self-soothe - this may help to reduce the impact of anxiety and depression, which are highly associated with self-harm. In the long-term, you may feel better able to manage those self-harm thoughts and behaviours.
I’m a clinician – what does this mean for me?
Purrble supports emotion regulation. If we equip young people with these skills ahead of time or alongside traditional therapies, they may be more able to discuss topics like self-harm which need that human support.