Can Robots Help Working Parents with Childcare? Optimizing Childcare Functions for Different Parenting Characteristics

Is it true that parents always prioritize educational effectiveness when selecting childcare services? The current study identified the potential requirements of dual-income parents toward social robots’ diverse childcare functions (e.g., socialization, education, entertainment, and consultation). The results revealed that parental attitudes toward robots were made more positive by all the childcare functions of robots except for their educational features. Furthermore, parents’ expectations of childcare functions varied based on their parenting characteristics. Spectral clustering analysis identified distinctive parenting styles (e.g., family-oriented, work-oriented, noninterventional, and dominant), and multigroup structural equation modeling suggested that the impact of robots’ socialization function was significant in all parent groups, while other childcare functions exerted limited influence according to specific parenting styles. In addition, children’s characteristics were found to alter parents’ preferences for each childcare function. These results offer practical implications for the early adoption of childcare robots through predetermining parents’ acceptability based on their specific parenting characteristics.