The Role of Rapport in Satisfying One's Basic Psychological Needs

Child-centered home service design for a family robot companion

The home robot-based child activity service aims to cultivate children's social emotions. A design theme was produced by interviewing child development experts and parents. The activity service is composed of 50 plays and 70 conversations. These were developed based on activities from psychomotor therapy and the guidelines of Ministry of Early Childhood Education in South Korea. In the field test, 50 children aged five-seven years participated to experience the activity services at home for 4 days. After completing the 4 days of field testing, we conducted customer satisfaction (CSAT) surveys, Godspeed evaluations and interviews to quantitatively and qualitatively verify the evaluations by the children and parents. As a result, 92% of the children and 80% of the parents evaluated that they were satisfied with the service. In addition, our results revealed that the social robot-based service contributed to improving the relationship between children and families by functioning as a messenger. Finally, the lessons learned from the service development and field tests were discussed to aid service designers and robotics engineers.

Rapport between nurses and adult patients with cancer in ambulatory oncology care settings: A scoping review

BACKGROUND

Although the importance of the nurse-patient relationship in oncology is established, a consolidated body of research describing nurse-patient rapport, especially in ambulatory care, is lacking.

OBJECTIVES

This scoping review aimed to explore knowledge about rapport between adult patients with cancer and their nurses in ambulatory oncology care, including nurse, patient, nurse-patient dyad, and system-level factors that influence rapport.

METHODS

A scoping review was conducted to explore sources of evidence and gaps in knowledge pertinent to future research. The Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for Systematic Reviews was used with searches in MEDLINE, CINAHL, and ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global databases. Experimental, descriptive observational, and qualitative study designs that focused on patients with cancer and their nurses within an ambulatory care setting were included. Results were reported using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews.

RESULTS

The search strategy collected 4538 studies of which 10 met study criteria after screening. Forward and backward citation tracking of included articles resulted in 4 additional studies. In total, 14 studies were extracted and analyzed. Synthesis of results from the individual sources resulted in three key observations: (a) there is an absence of studies that focus directly on nurse-patient rapport; (b) the majority of extracted data on rapport-related factors described aspects of nurses' attitudes; and (c) there was minimal information on patient, nurse-patient dyad, and system-level factors reported in these studies.

CONCLUSIONS

The lack of studies focused specifically on nurse-patient rapport in oncology ambulatory care indicates a notable gap in our empirical understanding of relationship-based care, a hallmark of cancer care provision.

TWEETABLE ABSTRACT

Nurse-patient rapport in oncology ambulatory care requires additional research @paula_koppel.

Effects of Basic Psychological Needs on Physical Self-Efficacy and Attitudes toward PE in Korean Middle-School Physical Education

This study explored the effect of basic psychological needs in secondary physical education (PE) classes in South Korea on physical self-efficacy and attitudes toward PE. Data from 296 middle-school students were collected from May to June 2022 in Seoul or Gyeonggi-do. Participants were surveyed via simple random sampling. Confirmatory factor, correlation, and multiple regression analyses were conducted, and reliability was assessed with Cronbach's α. Basic psychological needs had a significant positive effect on physical self-efficacy. Competence and autonomy positively and significantly affected perceived physical competence (β = 0.535 and 0.320, respectively). Basic psychological needs had a significant positive effect on classroom attitudes toward PE. Autonomy and relatedness positively and significantly affected basic attitudes (β = 0.317 and 0.388, respectively) and social attitudes (β = 0.3498 and 0.213, respectively). Physical self-efficacy had a significant positive effect on PE classroom attitudes. Perceived physical competence and physical self-presentation confidence had a positive and significant effect on basic attitudes (β = 0.258 and 0.166, respectively). The results implied that attitudes toward school life can be improved through physical activity in secondary PE classes.

Experiences of a Digital Mental Health Intervention from the Perspectives of Young People Recovering from First-Episode Psychosis: A Focus Group Study

Horyzons is a digital health intervention designed to support recovery in young people receiving specialized early intervention services for first-episode psychosis (FEP). Horyzons was developed in Australia and adapted for implementation in Canada based on input from clinicians and patients (Horyzons-Canada Phase 1) and subsequently pilot-tested with 20 young people with FEP (Horyzons-Canada Phase 2).

OBJECTIVE

To understand the experiences of young adults with FEP who participated in the pilot study based on focus group data.

METHODS

Among the twenty individuals that accessed the intervention, nine participated across four focus groups. Three team members were involved in data management and analysis, informed by a thematic analysis approach. A coding framework was created by adapting the Phase 1 framework to current study objectives, then revised iteratively by applying it to the current data. Once the coding framework was finalized, it was systematically applied to the entire dataset.

RESULTS

Four themes were identified: (1) Perceiving Horyzons-Canada as helpful for recovery; (2) Appreciating core intervention components (i.e., peer networking; therapeutic content; moderation) and ease of use; (3) Being unaware of its features; and (4) Expressing concerns, suggestions, and future directions.

CONCLUSIONS

Horyzons-Canada was well received, with participants wanting it to grow in scale, accessibility, and functionality.

The Effects of Social Presence and Familiarity on Children-Robot Interactions

In children-robot interactions, an impression of a robot's "social presence" (i.e., an interactive agent that feels like a person) links positively to an improved relationship with the robot. However, building relationships takes many exposures, and there is an intellectual gap in how social presence and familiarity collaborate in modulating children-robot relationships. We investigated whether social presence altered over time, how repeated exposure and social presence affected rapport, and how social presence would modulate children's attitudes toward the robot. Fourteen children (four female, age = 10.79 ± 1.12) interacted with a companion robot for four days in spontaneous interactions. The findings revealed that children who perceived the robot as having a higher social presence developed a stronger rapport than those who perceived a lower social presence. However, repeated encounters did not change the children's perceptions of the robot's social presence. Children rated higher rapport after repeated interactions regardless of social presence levels. This suggests that while a higher social presence initially elevated the positive relationship between children and the robot, it was the repeated interactions that continued solidifying the rapport. Additionally, children who perceived a higher social presence from the robot felt less relational uneasiness about their relationship with robots. These findings highlight the importance of robots' social presence and familiarity in promoting positive relationships in children-robot interaction.