A Multi-Construct Protocol for Assessing Child–Robot Interaction in Primary School Settings

Madrid Ruiz E.P.; Cedazo R.; García-Cena C.E. · International Journal of Social Robotics (2026) · DOI: 10.1007/s12369-026-01435-6

Resumen

This paper presents a protocol to assess interactions between children and social robots in real-world educational environments, with the objective of evaluating the impact of social robotics as an educational tool to support teachers in their daily classroom activities. Although previous studies have proposed methods and variables for assessing child–robot interaction, most have been conducted in laboratory settings and based on 1:1 interaction paradigms. This work introduces a multi-construct protocol and experimental procedure designed for natural classroom environments. Four constructs - Intentional Social Acceptance, Perceived Enjoyment, Social Presence and Anxiety- were used to evaluate the interaction. The protocol was validated with 93 first-grade students in a public primary school in Madrid, Spain. High levels of acceptance and enjoyment, more than 90% of children expressed willingness to interact again with the robot. Social presence results were more heterogeneous, while anxiety levels were generally low. The proposed protocol demonstrated adequate reliability for key constructs, with reliability coefficients up to 0.83. These findings suggest that the protocol is a viable and feasible tool for assessing child–robot interaction in real educational environments, providing a foundation for future studies and comparative evaluations. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2026.

Instituciones: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú