Journal Article

DZNE-2025-01332

http://join2-wiki.gsi.de/foswiki/pub/Main/Artwork/join2_logo100x88.png Playfulness and disruptions: using pet robots in everyday life in a nursing home for people with dementia

Felding, S. A. (First author)DZNE* ; Teupen, S.DZNE* ; Budak, K. B.DZNE* ; Roes, M. (Last author)DZNE*

2025
Cambridge Univ. Press Cambridge [u.a.]

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Please use a persistent id in citations: doi:10.1017/S0144686X25100263

Abstract: Recent years have seen increasing interest in social robots, including pet robots, and their use in the care of people with dementia. Most research has focused on formal care-givers’ perspectives. There is a lack of qualitative research on the use of social robots in embedded practice and how people with dementia react to and interact with social robots. This study explores the use of pet robots in everyday life in a nursing home for people with dementia and how playfulness and disruptions characterized many interactions among the people with dementia, the pet robots and the researcher. It draws on five months of ethnographic fieldwork in a Danish nursing home for people with dementia including 11 residents, 13 staff members and 3 family members. We found that pet robots opened people up for playful interactions, allowing people with dementia to express themselves and have fun in a way that flattened hierarchies and enabled these individuals to be active instigators of joyful interactions. In the article, we argue that agency is distributed and that residents, robots, researchers and other actors both instigate and disrupt playful interactions. Playful interactions in the nursing home can be fun and rebellious in an everyday life that is otherwise focused on fitting in and keeping calm. Therefore, playfulness and fun can be viewed as a way of coping with institutional life. Further, playful interactions with pet robots can provide opportunities for residents to be active instigators rather than merely passive recipients of care and activities.

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Contributing Institute(s):

1. Implementation Science & Person-Centered Dementia Care (AG Roes)
2. Methods in Health Care Research (AG Teupen)

Research Program(s):

1. 353 - Clinical and Health Care Research (POF4-353) (POF4-353)

Appears in the scientific report 2025

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Database coverage:
; ; ; Clarivate Analytics Master Journal List ; Current Contents - Social and Behavioral Sciences ; Ebsco Academic Search ; Essential Science Indicators ; IF < 5 ; JCR ; National-Konsortium ; SCOPUS ; Social Sciences Citation Index

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