This meta-analysis follows PRISMA guidelines to synthesize, analyze, and provide much needed information and data about the different interventions used, the robot’s role(s) in these interventions, and the utility of the social robots in successful interventions for the purposes of social and emotional learning with young children. Teaching pedagogy is an important component of this research as it will be used to inform future research. The results of this meta-analysis will inform both researchers and practitioners alike which program design, teaching pedagogy, and target populations for which utilizing social robots for the purposes of improving social and emotional learning for young students will be most impactful and meaningful. Further, the results of this study will inform researchers, psychologists, and educators how they can incorporate these findings into their applied practice (e.g., in the classroom or in clinical settings with students) and/or for their future research. This meta-analysis can help to identify which research questions related to this topic have already been answered and where some of the research gaps remain. In a future study to be conducted by the principal investigators of this study, the results of this meta-analysis will be used to design and plan teaching pedagogy and social robot-based interventions for teaching social and emotional learning to young children in a kindergarten in Taichung, Taiwan.
