How can we Best Use Technology to Teach Children to Regulate Emotions? Efficacy of the Cognitive Reappraisal Strategy Based on Robot Versus Cartoons Versus Written Statements in Regulating Test Anxiety

Test anxiety has a high prevalence in children and is associated with lower academic performance. The main purpose of the current paper was to investigate the efficacy of using technology based tools, in the form of a robotic agent and cartoons, for teaching school aged children functional cognitive reappraisal emotion-regulation strategies for managing test anxiety. Sixty-nine elementary school aged children participated in the current study. Test anxiety was induced and then the children were allocated to the roboRETMAN, the PsyPills (written reappraisal statements), and the wait-list conditions. In the second stage, children in the wait-list received the RETmagic cartoons. Children reported on their anxiety, positive emotions, rational and irrational beliefs. Results show a higher efficacy for the roboRETMAN compared to wait-list in helping children manage their test anxiety, improving their positive emotions and reducing irrational cognitions. This study brings important contributions to the field, given that there is no research done so far investigating most effective means for delivering emotion-regulation strategies in children.