Conversational agents have a potential in improving student mental wellbeing while assisting them in self-disclosure activities such as journalling. Their embodiment might have an effect on what students disclose, and how they disclose this, and students overall adherence to the disclosure activity. However, the effect of embodiment in the context of agent assisted journal writing has not been studied. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the viability of using social robots (SR) and voice assistants (VA) for eliciting rich disclosures in journal writing that contributes to mental health status improvement in students over time. Forty two undergraduate and graduate students participated in the study that assessed the mood changes (via Brief Mood Introspection Scale, BMIS), level of subjective self-disclosure (via Subjective Self-Disclosure Questionnaire, SSDQ), and perceptions toward the agents (via Robot Social Attributes Scale, RoSAS) with and without agent (SR or VA) assisted journal writing. Results suggest that only in robot condition there are mood improvements, higher levels of disclosure, and positive perceptions over time in technology-assisted journal writing. Our results suggest that robot assisted journal writing has some advantages over voice assistant one for eliciting rich disclosures that contributes to mental health status improvement in students over time.

翻译：对话代理在协助学生进行日记等自我披露活动时，具有改善其心理健康的潜力。代理的具身性可能影响学生披露的内容、方式以及学生对披露活动的整体依从性。然而，关于具身性在代理辅助日记写作情境中的作用尚未得到研究。因此，本研究旨在探讨利用社交机器人（Social Robots, SR）和语音助手（Voice Assistants, VA）引发丰富自我披露的可行性，这种披露方式能随时间推移改善学生的心理健康状况。42名本科生和研究生参与了本研究，评估了在有无代理（SR或VA）辅助日记写作条件下的情绪变化（通过简明情绪内省量表，BMIS）、主观自我披露水平（通过主观自我披露问卷，SSDQ）以及对代理的感知（通过机器人社会属性量表，RoSAS）。结果表明，仅在机器人条件下，随着时间推移，技术辅助日记写作中出现了情绪改善、更高水平的披露以及积极感知。我们的结果表明，与语音助手相比，机器人辅助的日记写作在引发丰富自我披露方面具有某些优势，这有助于长期改善学生的心理健康状况。