Introduction: Chatbots provide a unique opportunity to scale positive psychology health interventions through daily practice. This study examines the effects Vivibot - a positive psychology skill building chatbot on Facebook Messenger - on key psychosocial well-being outcomes in adolescents and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors.
Methods: AYAs (age 18 to 29) within 5 years of completing active cancer treatment were recruited and randomized to either immediate access to Vivibot content (treatment) or a delayed access control group (with daily moos ratings). Created using a human-centered design process, Vivibot content includes daily mood ratings and 4 weeks of seven positive psychology skills. All participants completed online psychological surveys at baseline, and weeks 2, 4, and 8.
Results: Thirty-two AYAs (23 female, average age 24.7 +- 2.9) enrolled in this ongoing study and were randomly assigned to treatment (N=17) or control (N=15). Mixed effects model revealed a trend level (p=0.11) interaction between experimental group and time with an effect size of 0.47. Additionally, Those in the treatment group experienced greater reductions in anxiety when they completed more lessons (R-squared=0.12, p=0.14).
Conclusions: Preliminary results provide initial evidence that positive psychology skills delivered via chatbot support anxiety reduction among young cancer survivors.