Beyond the Dialogue: Multi-chatbot Group Motivational Interviewing for Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) Management

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a prevalent disorder among women, often exacerbated by a lack of peer support due to associated stigmatization.Drawing inspiration from the established benefits of group therapy, particularly the sense of belonging it fosters, we developed a multi-chatbot group motivational interviewing system.The system consists of a facilitator bot and two peer bots, and simulates a group counseling environment for PMS management using Large Language Models (LLMs).We conducted a study with 63 participants and divided them into three conditions (no intervention, 1-on-1 chatbot, group chatbots) over two menstruation cycles for evaluation.Our findings revealed that participants in the group chat condition exhibited higher levels of engagement and language convergence with the chatbots.These participants were also able to engage in social learning and demonstrated motivation in coping through interactions with the chatbots.Finally, we discuss design implications for multi-chatbot interactions in supporting mental health.