Dialogue Agents that Share Family Information to Strengthen Grandparent-Grandchild Relationships

2026-04-14

AI Summary

This study addresses the mental health challenges faced by older adults due to social isolation and weakened familial ties by proposing a novel conversational agent that, for the first time, integrates an intergenerational daily information-sharing mechanism into a human-computer interaction system. Built on a chatbot platform, the agent enables bidirectional collection and personalized delivery of everyday life updates between grandparents and grandchildren, thereby fostering interaction and strengthening emotional bonds. Experimental results demonstrate that the system significantly enhances psychological closeness between generations and effectively reduces anxiety levels in both groups, offering an innovative paradigm that bridges human-computer interaction with family-based relational interventions.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Human-Computer Interaction
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction
• Intelligent Robots: Human-Robot Interaction

Application Category

• Social Networks and Social Media: Generative AI / large language models and their impact on social systems
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: User modeling and simulation for interactive and conversational systems
• Semantics and Knowledge: Data modeling to support human-machine intelligence, including LLMs agents, intelligent system behavior, explanations, and user-friendly interactions

Abstract

Social isolation among older adults has become a critical concern, as reduced opportunities for conversation and weakened family relationships negatively affect mental health. This study proposes a dialogue agent that supports older adults by fostering both a relationship with the agent and a relationship with their grandchild through sharing everyday information. The agent operates on a chatbot platform and engages in daily conversations with older adults and their grandchildren, exchanging information gathered from each party to enhance conversational engagement and social connection. We conducted a ten-day empirical experiment with 108 grandparent-grandchild pairs. The results suggest that older adults became more willing to interact with the proposed agent, which shared information about their grandchildren, and that the psychological connection between grandparents and grandchildren was strengthened. Furthermore, daily interactions with the agent were associated with reduced anxiety in both older adults and their grandchildren. These findings indicate that a dialogue agent that shares personal information can be an effective approach to supporting older adults by simultaneously offering conversational opportunities and promoting family connectedness. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the design of dialogue agents that effectively address social isolation among older adults.

Problem

• social isolation
• older adults
• grandparent-grandchild relationships
• family connectedness
• mental health

Innovation

• dialogue agent
• family information sharing
• social isolation
• intergenerational relationship
• conversational AI