Journal of Child and Family Studies (2020) 29:2954–2966

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-019-01689-x

ORIGINAL PAPER

Applications of Artificial Intelligence Methodologies to Behavioral

and Social Sciences
1
Mihaela Robila ●
Stefan A. Robila2

Published online: 12 December 2019

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019

Abstract
Objectives
Although Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a part of the computer science field for many decades, it has only recently been
applied to different areas of behavioral and social sciences. This article provides an examination of the applications of AI
methodologies to behavioral and social sciences exploring the areas where they are now utilized, the different tools used and
their effectiveness.
Methods
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The study is a systematic research examination of peer-reviewed articles (2010–2019) that used AI methodologies in social
and behavioral sciences with a focus on children and families.
Results
The results indicate that artificial intelligence methodologies have been successfully applied to three main areas of behavioral
and social sciences, namely (1) to increase the effectiveness of diagnosis and prediction of different conditions, (2) to
increase understanding of human development and functioning, and (3) to increase the effectiveness of data management in
different social and human services. Random forests, neural networks, and elastic net are among the most frequent AI
methods used for prediction, supplementing traditional approaches, while natural language processing and robotics continue
to increase their role in understanding human functioning and improve social services.
Conclusions
Applications of AI methodologies to behavioral and social sciences provide opportunities and challenges that need to be
considered. Recommendations for future research are also included.
Keywords Artificial intelligence Behavioral and social sciences Machine learning Families Children
● ● ● ●

John McCarthy introduced the term “artificial intelligence”
(AI) in 1955, as “the science and engineering of making
intelligent machines” (Hamet and Tremblay 2017). AI is
part of the global policy agenda supporting the achievement
of the 2030 United Nations (U.N.) Sustainable Develop-
ment Goals (SDGs). The AI for Good is the U. N. platform
for considering the applications of AI in supporting
* Mihaela Robila
Mihaela.Robila@qc.cuny.edu
1
Human Development and Family Science, Department of Family,
Nutrition and Exercise Sciences, 306G Remsen Hall, Queens
College, City University of New York, 65-30 Kissena Blvd.,
Queens, NY 11367-1597, USA
2
Department of Computer Science, Montclair State University,
Montclair, NJ, USA
strategies to improve the quality of life and sustainability
(AI for Good Summit 2018). This and similar platforms,
designed to combine human intelligence with a range of
artificial intelligence tools (e.g., natural language proces-
sing, image analysis), create a significant impact on what
humans and machines can do when working together and
apply it to society (AI Social Good Services 2019).
Although Artificial Intelligence has been a part of the
computer science field for many decades, it has only
recently been applied to different areas of behavioral and
social sciences (Walsh et al. 2017). The significant increase
in data availability and diversity and the advances in
methodologies and tools suggest that AI will become more
frequently used in different areas outside computer science.
Social and behavioral sciences have traditionally employed
sound research methodologies derived from mathematics
and statistics. The increase in data availability and advances
Journal of Child and Family Studies (2020) 29:2954–2966
in AI have resulted in Machine Learning (ML) techniques
being proposed as replacements to these traditional
approaches. Nevertheless, such significant change requires
careful examination especially given that many of the ML
tools employ predictions that may be less understood or
introduce biases. Similar examinations of AI use in other
areas have been done recently, such as in health sciences
(e.g. Miller and Brown 2018). The goal of this study is to
provide a systematic examination of the applications of
Artificial Intelligence in social and behavioral sciences,
exploring the areas where is now utilized, the different
methods used and their effectiveness, and to suggest
recommendations for further research. Whereas social and
behavioral science is a broad topic, the focus of this study
has been children and families.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to an area of computer
science that researches and develops tools for solving pro-
blems that are considered to require human intelligence
(Russell and Norvig 2010). The term “artificial” refers to
the use of computers rather than humans to solve problems.
The term “intelligence” relates to behavior or actions that
are commonly associated to human intelligence, and often
does not follow a strict definition. Various definitions have
been proposed and include acting or thinking humanely or
acting or thinking rationally (Ertel 2018). In computer sci-
ence, development of tools is often understood to be algo-
rithm development. An algorithm is a well-defined set of
steps that, starting with some input data produces an output
result (Cormen et al. 2009). Algorithms developed in AI
have the same general characteristics, with the distinction
that many aim to emulate processes that are deemed intel-
ligent. As example, when analyzing an image, a human
subject would go beyond simply concluding that specific
colors are prevalent or that the image has low or high light
intensity, but would be able to identify and describe objects,
the relationship between them and infer possible past or
prior actions (Kaplan and Haenlein 2019).
Developing AI algorithms to expose the same level of
complexity has been difficult due to two main barriers: the
lack of sound models for the intelligent thought process and
high computational costs (Russell and Norvig 2010).
However, progress has accelerated in both directions.
Computational neuroscience has now reached levels in
which brain focused processes are understood and can lead
to computing models (Clark 2013). Brain simulations are
aggressively being pursued by large research initiatives
such the European Union Brain Project, or the US Brain
Initiative (Insel et al. 2013). Simultaneously, computing
technology continues to advance both from the point of
view of speed and capacity as well as specialization (Sze
et al. 2017). Whereas the first AI efforts were based on
general purpose Central Processing Units, the level of par-
allelism encountered in many techniques today lead to a
2955
shift to a more specialized hardware: general purpose Pro-
cessing Units such as the Intel or NVIDIA General Pro-
cessing Units (GPU) (Gawande et al. 2018) and more
recently accelerator hardware designed to be optimized for a
single AI task (or even one component of the task) (Lee
et al. 2018). Such specialization has led to speedups in
computation reaching orders of magnitude over traditional
computational platforms, a trend expected to continue.
AI has also significantly expanded beyond trying to
simulate brain functions. One of the most significant and
growing components of AI, Machine Learning (ML) refers
to the process of building a data model in which the specific
algorithmic steps are determined and then refined based on
analysis of data (Russell and Norvig 2010). In other words,
the design of the algorithm is “learned” based on the
properties of the data it is expected to process. Many ML
algorithms are anchored in statistics: a large group uses
various regression analysis approaches for model fitting;
LASSO (least absolute shrinkage and selector operator) and
elastic nets have been extensively employed. Specifically,
elastic nets have increased in popularity as the fitting model
allows for situations where the number of data points is
small when compared to the number of features (Zhou and
Hastie 2005).
ML techniques can be categorized based on the type of
outcome expected or on the underlying algorithmic
approach. In terms of algorithmic methods, approaches that
have seen significant advances recently include neural net-
works, support vector machines, Bayesian networks, and
genetic algorithms. With respect to the outcome expected,
various ML algorithms result in a decision / classification,
extraction or selection of features, detection or anomalies,
identification association rules etc. As example, decision or
classification trees are algorithms that, starting with a set of
feature values for an observation, return a specific value (i.e.
a decision) (Russell and Norvig 2010). This value is
obtained following a sequence of decision tests applied to
the input feature values. The specific design for a tree can be
done using regression, gradient approaches, etc, and the
specific decision tests are determined based on the sample
data. A variation of this approach, fuzzy decision trees
replace the single result by a set of results together with
confidence scores for each value. This approach offers more
flexibility in interpreting the results and better alignment
with the human thought process. As example, a fuzzy
decision tree system aimed to classify human emotions from
faces (Pu et al. 2016) provided better insight than a binary
decision, reflective of complex human emotions. Finally, in
a further refinement, random forests (collections of decision
trees) were also proposed (Ho 1995). Each tree in the col-
lection is built using subsets of the data or subsets of fea-
tures and the classification result is delivered using either
averaging of individual tree results or by a majority voting.
2956
Neural network (NN) refers to an algorithmic framework
that aims to simulate a simplified version of neural con-
nections in the brain (Sze et al. 2017). NNs are formed of a
collection of connected nodes (i.e., neurons). Each node
receives one or more values as input and generates an
output value. Using a mathematical formulation (such as a
weighted average), the input values are combined in a single
value that is then further processed through a threshold
computation (activation function) to generate the output.
Multiple neurons are combined in layers with the output of
one layer becoming input to the neurons in the next. If the
goal of the algorithm has been classification, then the output
of a NN is used with the target output value suggesting
labeling for a specific class. The specific weights for each
input are adapted based on a training process that uses
example cases of the data. Various approaches to this
training process exist. More advanced approaches to input
combination (rather than simple weighted average), as well
as dynamic adaptation of the activation function have also
been proposed (Gu et al. 2018). A deep neural network
(DNN) is a NN with a large number of layers. Building and
training DNNs allows modeling for complex data environ-
ments. Yet, the process of learning, i.e. of adapting the
weights is computationally expensive and requires large
amounts of data. This is why, although NNs have been used
for decades, they have increased in importance only
recently when both hardware advances and increased data
collection have moved them from specialized or theoretical
examples to mainstream data processing tools (Montavon
et al. 2018).
Natural language processing (NLP) is another important
area of AI. It refers to building computational tools that
analyze and represent human language at human commu-
nication complexity levels (Liddy 2001). Concepts such as
speech to text, lexical semantics machine translation, topic
segmentation have all made significant progress, allowing
data collection and processing to be performed on vast
collections such as discussion boards (Hirschberg and
Manning 2015). The ability to combine human language
processing and access to large information databases
allowed the design of complex intelligent environments
such as IBM’s Watson that serves as technological base for
Question and Answering (Q&A) systems (Chen et al.
2016).
Robotics refers to the research and development of
robots, i.e. systems that can perform a complex set of tasks
autonomously (Siegwart et al. 2011). While robotics has a
large variety of applications that include industrial auto-
mation (e.g. automation of production lines), disaster
assistance (e.g. robots are employed in environments not
suitable for humans), often the most visible aspects is the
aim for robotics systems to perform human activities that
are considered intelligent. Recent examples include
Journal of Child and Family Studies (2020) 29:2954–2966
progress in autonomous driving (Stilgoe 2018) or design of
humanoid robotic platforms (Siegwart et al. 2011). As many
of these activities involve perception, recognition and
planning, robotics is thus strongly connected to AI. With the
advances in deep learning, robotics continues to make
strides in performing activities at or above human level
accuracy. While not the focus of this paper, it is important
to note that robotics is increasing in importance in con-
nection to social and behavioral sciences. A variety of
robots have been developed for therapy (Huijnen et al.
2017), as assistive technology for the elderly (Bedaf et al.
2015) or in health services organizations (Mettler et al.
2017).
More importantly, beyond advances within the field, AI
has become a popular approach to data processing due to
the growing availability of tools. Languages such as R or
Python allow novices to be introduced to programming in a
user-friendly approach. The increased availability of AI
focused computer packages ensures a low threshold for
adoption (Pedregosa et al. 2011).
Methods
A systematic research examination was conducted to ana-
lyze the applications of AI in behavioral and social sciences.
To ensure that a standard approach was taken in the iden-
tification and analysis of the research studies, the following
steps were used. First, a date range (between 2010 and
2019) was identified as the timeframe when AI has seen
significant progress and has started to be used more fre-
quently in social and behavioral sciences, thus allowing for
meaningful analysis. Next, search engines and databases
that are reflective of the academic publication world from
the point of view of topic coverage, access, and acceptance
were identified (e.g. PsychInfo, Google Scholar).
Two approaches were then followed to collect the pub-
lications. Initially, using a Breadth-First search approach,
search keywords that would properly reflect the focus of the
research and be relevant to both social studies and artificial
intelligence were identified. Keeping the focus on children
and families, keywords such as family, parenting, artificial
intelligence, and machine learning were used. Second, a
Depth-First search approach was followed. Following-up on
citations in articles that were cited to identify the primary
source. Following-up on publications that cite the article to
identify updates on the original results.
Following the selection of the references, both authors,
one with background in human development and family
science and the other in computer science conducted the
reviews independently and then discussed and agreed
on the articles selected. The papers selected met four cri-
teria: topic relevance, AI relevance, method validity and
Journal of Child and Family Studies (2020) 29:2954–2966
Fig. 1 PRISMA flowchart for Records identified through PsychInfo
the selection of studies database searching
(n = 215)
reproducibility, and peer vetting. For topic relevance, the
paper’s application must align with social and behavioral
sciences. Studies that focused on biological data (such as
fMRI, EEG, biomarkers, etc.) were not included in the
analysis as they are extensively covered in the medical
sciences. With respect to AI relevance, the data processing
methods must be aligned with the current state of the art in
artificial intelligence. To validate the methods validity and
reproducibility, the methods were checked to ensure they
were appropriate for the type of data and scientific
hypotheses posed. The techniques used should have also
been easily reproducible using standard packages or
libraries, or, if newly developed, the paper should include
their description with sufficient detail. The results must be
evaluated using robust methods. Finally, with respect to
peer vetting, only papers published in peer-reviewed scho-
larly venues were included in the analysis in order to ensure
the robustness of the findings.
The literature search was conducted using Google
Scholar and PsychInfo for peer –reviewed articles written in
English. PsychInfo queries yielded 215 entries, from which
17 articles were identified as relevant to this study and
included in the analysis. Google Scholar yielded 302 entries
and, after removing the ones overlapping with the Psy-
chInfo results, 19 more articles were included in the ana-
lysis. There were no limitations in terms of geographical
location of publication or type of specific AI methodology
since the goal was to have a global coverage and a wide
variety of AI methods. A PRISMA Flowchart (Moher et al.
2957
Additional records identified through
Google Scholar
(n = 302)
Records after duplicates removed
(n = 405)
Records screened Records excluded
(n = 405) (n = 292)
Full-text articles assessed for Full-text articles excluded,
eligibility with reasons
(n = 113) (n = 67)
Studies included in analysis
(n = 36)
2009) detailing the selection of the articles is presented in
Fig. 1.
Results
The results indicate that although artificial intelligence has
not been used in social and behavioral sciences until
recently, there is significant progress registered. Artificial
intelligence methodologies have been applied to three main
areas of behavioral and social sciences, namely (1) to
increase the effectiveness of diagnosis and prediction of
different conditions, (2) to increase understanding of human
development and functioning, and (3) to increase the
effectiveness of data management in different social and
human services. The articles identified have been included
in three Tables, one for each area which present, besides the
reference, the specific AI methods used (and when possible,
the available statistical package utilized) and how they were
used, as well as a short summary of the study results.
Applications of Artificial Intelligence to Behavioral
and Social Sciences: Diagnosis and Prediction
This examination of the applications of artificial intelligence
methodologies to behavioral and social sciences indicated that
there has been progress with using these tools to increase the
effectiveness of diagnosis, refining the diagnosis process or
increasing its speed for a variety of conditions (see Table 1).
2958 Journal of Child and Family Studies (2020) 29:2954–2966

Table 1 Applications of AI to behavior and social sciences: diagnosis and prediction

Reference AI tools used How was AI used Results

Crutzen et al. (2015) Classification/decision trees AI used to study how parenting Results indicated that depending on the parenting dimension or
norms impact binge drinking in practice, parents’ reports correctly identified the drinking
children. behavior of 55.8% (using psychological control) and up to 70.2%
(using rules) of adolescents.
Walsh et al. (2017) Random forest (various Python and R packages) ML model used as classification ML algorithms accurately predicted risk of suicide attempts over
for risk of suicide. time. Accuracy improved as imminence increased, and predictor
importance shifted across time.
Gradus et al. (2017) Classification trees, regression trees, random forests AI was used to identify the main Findings based on a large data set converged on several
variables associated with suicide associations. ML was capable of differentiation of factors based
ideations. on various variables (such as gender).
Ryu et al. (2018) Random forest (caret R package) ML based model for prediction. A machine learning approach can enable screening for suicide
risk in the general population and augments prior work in clinical
settings.
Oh et al. (2017) Neural network NN used to perform binary The machine learning approach was used to show how
classification/feature extraction. information from self-report clinical scales can be useful for the
classification of suicide attempts clinicians identify high-risk
patients in clinical settings.
Song et al. (2016) Text mining NLP served as preprocessing step The use of NLP for preprocessing allowed for analysis of online
generating structured data from postings.
large body of online social posts.
Kessler et al. (2016) Regression trees, cross-validated regression ML models used to validate the The algorithm predicted major depression disorders (MDD)
predictive strength of several persistence, chronicity, and severity with good accuracy. Useful
variables. MDD risk stratification models can be generated from baseline
patient self-reports.
Wallert et al. (2017) Natural language processing, random forest (various R Tool used to identify most A machine learning insights from the U-CARE Heart
packages for analysis, specific NLP-tagger for Swedish) relevant predictor. Randomized Controlled Trial - identified the most potent
predictors for adherence available at the first treatment session
from a range of demographic, clinical, psychometric, and
linguistic predictors.
Wall et al. (2012) Large collection of classification tree methods Comparative analysis of ML ML techniques found that 7 of the 93 items in the Autism
methods, identification of Diagnostic Interview-Revised were sufficient to classify autism
predictive features. with 99.9% statistical accuracy.
Lenhard et al. (2018) Support vector machines, random forest, elastic net, Comparative study of four AI Increased prediction of outcome in internet-delivered cognitive
linear model with best subset predictor methods plus traditional tools behavior therapy for pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder. AI
(multivariate logistics). outperforms traditional methods.
Ioannidis et al. (2016) Logistic regression, random forests, naïve Bayes (caret R ML algorithms used to test The models showed robust transfer between the study sites (USA
package) association between PIU and other and South Africa) in all validation sets. Supports using ML in
measures. psychiatry to demonstrate replicability of results across
geographically and culturally different settings.
Askland et al. (2015) Random forest (randomForest R package) ML used as classification tool and Algorithm was able to distinguish participants according to
as feature selector. binary remission outcomes with an error rate of 24.6%.
Clinically-useful prediction of remission may not require an
extensive battery of measures, but that a small set of assessment
items may efficiently distinguish high- and lower-risk patients
and inform clinical decision-making.
Chang et al. (2012) Stochastic gradient descent ML used for model tuning Aggregate predictor resulted in improved accuracy.
aggregating three measures into a
single predictor).
Battista et al. (2017) Support vector machines (Matlab biolearning toolbox) ML and expert guided feature Both automated and expert guided approaches resulted in a
reduction. reduced number of features that provide high accuracy for
classification.
ML also used to show that some tests are best predictors for the
automatic classification.
MacLeod et al. (2016) New approach based on functional gradient boosting Development of new algorithm Identifying rare diseases (which are hard to identify and
focused on class imbalance. diagnose) from behavioral data self-reported behavioral data on
discussion boards to distinguish people with rare diseases from
people with more common chronic illnesses - using ML methods
and an appropriate set of questions, can accurately identify
people with rare diseases.
Ahn and Vassileva (2016) Elastic net The ML approach was compared ML was shown to outperform traditional measures. Data set size
to traditional ones (e.g. omnibus was listed as limitation. Specific measures were identified as
analysis of variance). strong predictors.
Afzali et al. (2019) Logistic regression, support vector machines, random Comparison of algorithms. Cross- The elastic-net approach performed best on both data sets as well
forest, neural network, lasso regression, ridge regression validation over two data sets. as on experiments that combined them. Further analysis
and elastic-net. (neuralnet, e1071, glmnet R packages) identified specific feature clusters that offer best predictors.
Computerized screening software shows promise in predicting
the risk of alcohol use among adolescents.
Pan et al. (2017) Random forest (randomForest R package) AI used to identify determining The use of AI based techniques allowed identification of most
factors. important predictors as well as identify negative relationships
between other predictors and HIV testing.
Hong et al. (2018) k-means clustering Identify significant predictors for Several factors were identified as significant predictors including
homelessness. citizenship, age, medical conditions, employment, and history of
foster care or shelter stays as a child. Algorithm also produced
classification in three classes consistent with previous typologies
(transitionally homeless, episodically homeless, and chronically
homeless).
Takahashi and Evans (2018) Logistic regression, random forest, k-nearest neighbors, Cross-validation used to identify Used cross-validation to choose an appropriate machine learning
support vector machines, decision trees (scit-learn - best ML technique to model model for predicting re-arrest and found that the most important
Python) the data. predictors of subsequent arrest are age at first arrest, drug usage,
gang affiliation, and family with government assistance. Decision
trees identified as best fit.
Journal of Child and Family Studies (2020) 29:2954–2966
AI tools were also used to predict a variety of illnesses (e.g.,
depression) and social issues (e.g., re-arrest, homelessness).
Applications of Artificial Intelligence for Diagnosis
Establishing diagnosis for many health conditions
involves complex processes, use of many instruments,
requires considerable time involvement from patient and
clinician, resulting in potential delay of treatment and the
recovery process. A useful application of AI is to shorten
the diagnostic process. For example, Wall et al. (2012)
used AI to shorten the behavioral diagnosis of autism,
which is a very lengthy process (lasting up to several
months), translating into delays in the delivery of thera-
pies that have significant impacts on a child’s develop-
ment. The authors used machine learning techniques to
study retrospectively the large data repositories with the
answers to the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised
(ADI-R) and found that 7 of the 93 items contained in
the ADI-R were sufficient to classify autism with 99.9%
statistical accuracy. Such a significant reduction in the
number of items needed for diagnosis can lead to rapid
detection of autism.
Several studies tried to use AI methods to either develop
new and better assessment methods or to examine a variety
of instruments and indicate which are the most effective
ones. For example, with respect to Alzheimer’s disease,
Chang et al. (2012), constructed a new measure that
exploited finer differences in memory strategy, providing a
greater degree of statistical separation than previously
observed for asymptomatic family history and non-family
history groups. The results support analyzing memory
strategy in detail to probe potential disease onset and could
be used in asymptomatic middle-aged persons as a potential
risk factors. Battista et al. (2017) used machine learning to
optimize the neuropsychological assessments for functional
impairment classification by examining twelve neu-
ropsychological tests used to evaluate people with none,
mild, or severe impairment as measured by the clinical
dementia rating and identified the tests that are best pre-
dictors. The automatic predictors were shown to be com-
parable to the ones selected by human experts.
MacLeod et al. (2016)’s study used self reported data
generated from discussion board postings and a machine
learning algorithm to identifying rare diseases in popula-
tion of users with more common chronic illnesses and
found that using this method, and a set of questions,
accurately identify people with rare diseases. The research
combines NLP and ML to solve two difficult tasks: pro-
cessing of text and its use as part of the data, and analysis
of data in which the cluster sizes are significantly unba-
lanced (thus, difficult to be revealed through traditional
statistical methods).
2959
Applications of Artificial Intelligence for Prediction
The ability to predict the risks or the development of a
condition or illness based on preconditions and life cir-
cumstances could potentially help with the development of
mechanisms to address that condition. Artificial intelligence
methodologies, particularly machine learning techniques
were found to be effective in predicting the risk for
depression, substance dependency, drinking, obsessive
compulsive disorders, and suicide. To counter the com-
plexity of clinical decision making for major depressive
disorder (MDD), Kessler et al. (2016) developed machine
learning algorithms which, using baseline self reports,
predicted with good accuracy the persistence and severity of
MDD when compared with observed scores assessed 10–12
years after baseline. The new techniques improved on
conventional methods in developing such models.
Several studies examined the AI use in understanding
and predicting alcohol and substance abuse. Afzali et al.
(2019) examined the risk of alcohol use among adolescents
and using cross-validation, identified from a set of various
ML methods the ones that provide the highest prediction
accuracy. The approach was particularly noted as it inclu-
ded data sets from two different countries (Australia and
Canada). Computerized screening software shows promise
in predicting the risk of alcohol use. Crutzen et al. (2015)
examined indicators that predict binge drinking using data
mining to explore nonlinear relationships and the results
indicated that depending on the parenting dimension or
practice, parents’ reports correctly identified the drinking
behavior of 55.8% (using psychological control) up to
70.2% (using rules) of adolescents. Adolescents’ percep-
tions were best at identifying binge drinkers whereas par-
ents’ perceptions were best at identifying non-binge
drinkers. Ahn and Vassileva (2016) used machine learning
approaches and identified multivariate substance-specific
markers classifying heroin and amphetamine dependence
with high degree of accuracy. Authors used demographic,
personality, psychiatric and neurocognitive impulsivity
measures as predictors in the machine learning algorithm.
Ioannidis et al. (2016) examined problematic internet use
and associations with the impulsive-compulsive spectrum in
US and South Africa. The prediction was generated using
specific measures of impulsivity and compulsivity in a
population of volunteers. The models showed robust
transfer between the study sites in all validation sets pro-
viding support of using machine learning and demonstrating
replicability of results across different cultural contexts.
Several studies examined the use of AI in understanding
suicide risks. Walsh et al. (2017)’s study on predicting the
risk of suicide attempts over time produced algorithms that
optimized prediction from electronic health records. The use
of machine learning allowed for the prediction accuracy to
2960
improve as the imminence increased. In addition, the
algorithms allowed the researchers identify the strongest
predictors that were shown to vary across different time-
spans. Oh et al. (2017) used a machine learning approach to
show how information from self-report clinical scales can
be useful for the classification of suicide attempts, helping
clinicians identify high-risk patients in clinical settings.
Gradus et al. (2017) examined how gender impacts AI
models of trauma and suicidal ideation (SI) in veterans of
the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and found that while for men
the strongest predictors were depression, posttraumatic
stress disorder (PTSD), and somatic complaints, for females
they were sexual harassment during deployment, PTSD and
depression. Ryu et al. (2018) also used a machine learning
algorithm to predict individuals with suicide ideation but in
the general population, thus opening the opportunity for
screening for suicide risk beyond clinical settings. Song
et al. (2016) study on South Korean social network postings
used text mining to identify academic pressure as the most
significant contributing factor to adolescents’ suicide risk.
AI methods have also been used to predict screening/
treatment adherence, outcomes of treatment, or risks for
remissions for different conditions, such as depression,
anxiety, HIV and obsessive compulsive disorders. Wallert
et al. (2017) examined predicting adherence to internet-
delivered psychotherapy for symptoms of depression and
anxiety after myocardial infarction using a machine learning
insights from the U-CARE Heart Randomized Controlled
Trial to identify the most potent predictors for adherence
available at the first treatment session from a range of
demographic, clinical, psychometric, and linguistic pre-
dictors. Lenhard et al. (2018) tried to increase prediction of
outcome in internet-delivered cognitive behavior therapy
for pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder. While multi-
variate logistic regression could not detect any significant
predictors, four machine learning algorithms predicted
treatment response with increased accuracy. Pan et al.
(2017) examined factors associated with HIV testing among
participants from substance abuse treatment programs in the
US. The ML models produced higher accuracy than those
based on logistic regression and identified specific pre-
dictors of receipt of HIV testing results. Askland et al.
(2015) identified predictors of remission in a longitudinal
sample of adults with obsessive compulsive disorders. ML
based classification was able to differentiate the participants
according to binary remission outcomes suggesting that
clinically-useful prediction of remission may not require an
extensive battery of measures, but that a small set of
assessment items may efficiently distinguish high- and
lower-risk patients and inform clinical decision-making.
AI was also used to predict different social problems
such as homelessness or juvenile re-arrest. Hong et al.
Journal of Child and Family Studies (2020) 29:2954–2966
(2018) examined predictors of homelessness in NYC and
used applied logistic regression models and an unsupervised
clustering algorithm to identify the predictors of re-entry
and long-term length-of-stay, which were: citizenship, age,
medical conditions, employment, and history of foster care
or shelter stays as a child. A study examining the influence
of the individual and social background in predicting the
juvenile re-arrest used cross-validation to choose an
appropriate machine learning prediction model, and also
identified the most important predictors of subsequent arrest
(such as age at first arrest, drug usage, and gang affiliation)
(Takahashi and Evans 2018).
Applications of Artificial Intelligence in
Understanding Human Development and
Functioning
Artificial Intelligence methods were also used to increase
understanding of different areas of human development and
functioning, such as child development (e.g., cognitive
development, vaccinations), parenting, or relationships in
general (see Table 2). The growth of social media platforms
and public forums, increases the opportunity to use NLP and
ML to examine these for patterns which could be used to
develop different social services. Many of these platforms are
regularly used by individuals or families to find information
and support with different questions and in several studies AI
was used to examine large amounts of data obtained from
public forums (MacLeod et al. 2016). For example, Tan-
gherlini et al. (2016) analyzed “Mommy Blogs” for vacci-
nation exemption discussions using a ML approach for story
aggregation on parenting social media sites. The results
showed that discussions of exemption from vaccination
requirements were reflecting distrust of government and
medical institutions. Similarly, Teague and Shatte (2018) used
machine learning and social media to explore the transition to
fatherhood on web-based communities, by mapping the dis-
cussion topics on two forums for expectant and current fathers
from the social media site Reddit and identified clusters of
topics such as pregnancy milestones, first-time fathers, prac-
tices, and challenges. This could be used for designing online
social support systems for parents, to reach and engage fathers
in childrearing. Online discussion forums also encourage
those in addiction recovery to seek help through text-based
messages when facing urges to drink or use drugs by having
staff offering guidance and support. Given that there is con-
siderable effort to continually review new content, automated
identification of problems could help staff engage in more
timely ways with participants. Kornfield et al. (2018) used
NLP and supervised ML to point, in real time, the most
concerning messages reflecting recovery problems, so that
staff could engage efficiently with the participants.
Journal of Child and Family Studies (2020) 29:2954–2966
Table 2 Applications of AI to behavior and social sciences: human development and functioning
Reference AI tools used
Tangherlini et al. (2016) Natural language processing, latent
Dirichlet allocation, contextual random
walks (NLTK)
Teague and Shatte (2018) Natural language processing k-means
clustering (scikit-learn Python)
Kornfield et al. (2018) Natural language processing,
decision trees
Wang et al. (2016) Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) for
text mining on the dataset (MALLET)
Cho and Lee (2018) Decision trees, logistic regression,
Bayesian network, neural network, k-
nearest neighbor (SPSS Modeler)
Wiechmann et al. (2017) Decision trees
Wang et al. (2016) Pennebakers linguistic inquiry word
count (LIWC), dynamic factor analysis
(MARSS R package)
Joel et al. (2017) Random forests (randomForest R
package)
Song et al. (2018) Association analysis, decision trees
(CHAID (Chi-squared automatic
interaction detection)
Joel et al. (2017) used machine learning on a data set
formed of responses from university students to examine the
prediction for romantic attraction. The authors reported
mixed results suggesting that relationship dynamics are
challenging to predict. Nevertheless, the study is important
to be highlighted in support for data and method accessi-
bility, as described by the Findable, Accessible, Interoper-
able, and Reusable (FAIR) principles (Wilkinson et al.
2016). Social big data was also analyzed to forecast the risk
of sexting in South Korea (Song et al. 2018).
Cho and Lee (2018) performed a comparative analysis of
ML based prediction models for children’s cognitive
development using a national data set. The results revealed
that the regression model outperforms others in terms of
prediction accuracy, while other models also achieved
considerable accuracy. Wiechmann et al. (2017) used
Machine Learning techniques to identify discriminative
attributes to gain insights regarding child obesity in His-
panic preschoolers. Qualitative and quantitative methods
were used to assess mothers’ views on barriers that chal-
lenge healthy eating. The algorithms determined the
variables linked to childhood obesity and were more
capable of finding hidden patterns, handling data with
noise, and processing non-linear data than traditional
approaches. Wang et al. (2016) analyzed a large corpus of
scientific abstracts to identify links between adolescent
substance use and adolescent depression, such as sexual
experience and violence. Similarly focused on big data
and using text mining, Wang et al. (2016) analyzed
2961
How was AI used Results
AI and statistical tools were used to The study allowed detection of widespread narrative frameworks
detect trends in online discussion. that structure and inform discussions.
ML used to identify themes in online Explored discussion topics of Web-based communities as men
postings. transition to fatherhood, by mapping them on 2 forums for
expectant and current fathers from the social media site Reddit.
Combination of AI technique used to ML models based on language use allows real-time flagging of
detect recovery problems as reported concerning content such that trained staff can engage efficiently
in discussion forums. and focus on time-sensitive issues.
AI used to process a large body of LDA discovered relevant themes: intervention program, links
literature. between adolescent substance use and adolescent depression, such
as sexual experience and violence, and risk factors.
Comparative model of various ML Regression model outperforms others in terms of prediction
techniques. accuracy; other models also achieved the considerable accuracy.
ML used to identify strong New algorithm introduced to identify predictors. AI has shown
predictors. promise.
Content Analysis of a large AI based processing of big data provides new research avenues
Twitter data. beyond traditional data collection and processing.
Identification of features as AI applicability was inconclusive in predicting attraction.
predictors for romantic desire. Limitations of the study may have contributed to results Data and
core available online for validation.
Social data used to construct a Specific risk factors were identified for teenage sexting. AI was
prediction model to explain youth argued as a novel research methodology.
sexting.
Twitter data to examine weekly trends in work related
stress and emotions.
Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Social and
Human Services
Several studies were conducted using AI in different social
and human services for case management and monitoring,
in a desire to increase their effectiveness by improving
handling of data and freeing practitioner time (see Table 3).
Pan et al. (2017) evaluated the predictive value of different
ML algorithms for early assessment of adverse birth risk
among pregnant women as a means of improving the
allocation of services. The results showed that the tested
algorithms outperformed the paper-based risk assessment
by 36%. ML also informed the design of an improved
paper-based assessment technique resulting in increased
numbers of clients identified as at risk. Another important
area of AI application is in large data collection and man-
agement. Bose et al. (2019) used Machine Learning meth-
ods to identify critical data elements in nursing
documentation, to decrease the burden for nurses’ home
visiting services to care for at-risk clients by identifying the
most important data elements related to patient needs. Two
different feature selection techniques were used and showed
promise for reducing the nursing documentation burden.
Several studies were focused on using AI to develop
models to provide support for child welfare and preventing
child maltreatment, with some resulting in implementation.
2962 Journal of Child and Family Studies (2020) 29:2954–2966

Table 3 Applications of AI to behavioral and social sciences: human and social services
Reference AI tools used How was AI used Results

Pan et al. (2017) Random forest, linear discriminant analysis, Comparative analysis of four ML
penalized logistic regression, naive Bayes methods as classifiers.
(scikit-learn Python) Use best model to design a
paper-based tool.
Amrit et al. (2017) NLP processing (NLTK) k-means clustering Comparative analysis for three
naïve Bayes, random forests, support vector ML methods used for
machines (scikit-learn Python) classification.
Application Programmer
Interface (API) designed to use
the models as tool in the field.
Gillingham (2016) Supervised learning, logistic regression ML used to develop a supervised
Predictive Risk Model for Child
Services.
Schwartz et al. (2017) Decision tree ML used to identify which
features impact further abuse
investigation.
Pouke and Häkkilä (2013) Avatar-based 3D visualization system Classification and sensor data
-wearable sensors used to identify individual
activity.
Rizzo et al. (2011) Not discussed Tool designed as web based
virtual reality environment for
interaction.
Bose et al. (2019) Elastic net, LASSO, minimum-redundancy- Two AI technique were
maximum relevance investigated for best feature
selection.
ML algorithms outperformed the traditional paper-based risk
assessment by 36%. Improvements allow 100 to 170 additional
high-risk pregnant women screened for program eligibility each
year to receive services.
A model that included text and quantitative data and employed
ML techniques was designed to detect patterns of possible child
abuse and was found successful and implemented as a field tool
at a municipality in the Netherlands.
Predictive risk modeling - useful tool to prevent child
maltreatment in New Zealand. Tool also refined in response to
perceived biases.
Predictive analytics and ML applied on a large data set improved
the accuracy and utility of the child welfare risk assessment
instrument being used. Provides discussion on data cleaning and
integration of multiple data sets. Algorithms improved accuracy
in identifying low, moderate and high risk cases, better matching
the needs of family with services.
A system was designed to monitor elderly and provide quick
information on status or activity as a healthcare monitoring
mechanism. Systems taking advantage of 3D virtual world
visualization techniques have potential due to the privacy
preserving and simplified information presentation style.
SimCoach was designed as mechanism for early access to
healthcare support systems for veterans and veteran’s families.
By reducing the number of features, the techniques show
promise toward reducing public health nursing documentation
burden by identifying the most critical data elements needed to
predict risk status.

Schwartz et al. (2017) indicated that predictive analytics and
machine learning significantly improved the accuracy and
utility of the child welfare risk assessment instruments
being used for all type of risk cases, better matched the
needs of families and services, and improved the outcomes.
Using NLP and ML on structural and free-text data, Amrit
et al. (2017) proposed a decision support system based
approach that increased the number of correctly identified
child abuse cases and improved their registration, providing
health care professionals support with identifying possible
child abuse. The study employed health data generated by
health care professionals as part of their daily procedures,
and thus did not place an additional data collection burden.
The resulting model achieved a high score in classifying
cases of possible abuse and was implemented as a pilot
project in Netherlands. Examining predictive risk modeling
to prevent child maltreatment and other adverse outcomes
for service users, Gillingham (2016) analyzed how machine
learning techniques were employed in the development of
predictive risk modeling in New Zealand as part of one of
the first national efforts to use ML tools in child protection
services. Reflecting the complexity of adopting such tool at
a national level, the approach continued to be refined to
address the need for increased accuracy as well as eliminate
biases (Gillingham 2017).
Although not the focus of the current examination, the
increased role played by robotics in social and behavioral
sciences should also be noted. Homecare systems for
elderly people are becoming increasingly important due to
economic reasons and patients’ preferences and thus sensor-
based surveillance technologies and robot companions are
expected to become more frequent (Hamet and Tremblay
2017). Pouke and Häkkilä (2013) explored an avatar-based
visualization system for elder supervision and assistance.
The system collected data from wearable sensors and
employed human activity simulations to generate informa-
tion on a person’s activity. The system’s potential was
evaluated with homecare providers. The results showed that
such an approach has potential to ensure privacy preserva-
tion and simplified information presentation. In addition, the
increase in popularity of robots companions increases also
the need to reflect on ethical principles such as maintaining
a balance between freedom and security, intimacy and
dignity (Cornet 2013). AI was also used for developing
mechanisms that encourage certain population groups to use
support services. Rizzo et al. (2011) developed SimCoach a
web based virtual human support agent serving as guide for
promoting access to psychological healthcare information
and assisting military personnel and family members in
breaking down barriers to initiating care.
Discussion
Artificial Intelligence techniques are now frequently
employed in different fields due to the growing availability of
Journal of Child and Family Studies (2020) 29:2954–2966
data and the increasing computational power and accuracy.
The goal of this study was to examine the applications of
artificial intelligence techniques in behavioral and social sci-
ences with a focus on children and families. This compre-
hensive examination revealed that AI has been employed in
three main areas: (1) diagnosis (Battista et al. 2017; MacLeod
et al. 2016; Wall et al. 2012) and prediction of different
conditions (e.g., depression - Kessler et al. 2016; Wang et al.
2016; stress - Wang et al. 2016; alcohol abuse; Crutzen et al.
2015; impulsive-compulsive issues - Ioannidis et al. 2016;
suicide - Ryu et al. 2018); (2) human development and
functioning (e.g., child obesity - Wiechmann et al. 2017;
transition to fatherhood – Teague and Shatte, 2018); and (3)
social and human services (e.g., child welfare and maltreat-
ment – Amrit et al. 2017; nursing services - Bose et al. 2019).
In support of their use, AI methods registered progress in
refining diagnosis procedures by optimizing assessment
tools (Battista et al. 2017), developing more effective
measures (e.g., Chang et al. 2012), speeding up the diag-
nosis process (Wall et al. 2012), and increasing knowledge
about human functioning (Joel et al. 2017). They also
improved social services through data management that
included data collection and documentation (Bose et al.
2019) and development of more sophisticated data analysis
tools (Cho and Lee 2018). Machine learning systems are
able to examine information processing problems across
systems by increasing capabilities of human decision
makers, and thus establish new standards of effectiveness
and efficiency in management operations (Panch et al.
2018). This has been observed in several studies to support
child welfare and prevent child maltreatment (Amrit et al.
2017; Gillingham 2016).
Regarding the data sources, these were mostly large data
sets of records from different agencies or national surveys
(e.g., WHO World Mental Health Surveys - Kessler et al.
2016; Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination
Survey - Ryu et al. 2018, or data collected from social
media platforms such as discussion board (e.g., identifying
rare disease in general population - MacLeod et al. 2016;
addiction recovery - Kornfield et al. 2018) or social plat-
forms (e.g., parenting issues – Tangherlini et al. 2016;
Teague and Shatte 2018; sexting – Song et al. 2018). Of
particular value is the proven ability of the ML models to
characterize complex data sets (such as multiple sources,
unstructured data, text data, unbalanced data etc).
The Artificial Intelligence methods used by these studies
included many ML approaches such as classification/deci-
sion trees (Cho and Lee 2018; Crutzen et al. 2015), random
forests (Askland et al. 2015; Pan et al. 2017; Walsh et al.
2017), elastic net (Ahn and Vassileva 2016; Bose et al.
2019), neural network (Oh et al. 2017). Increasingly, studies
tackle the challenges of unstructured data available as
questionnaires or online posts by employing natural
2963
language processing techniques (Kornfield et al. 2018;
Teague and Shatte 2018; Wallert et al. 2017). It is important
to note that a significant number of studies used packages
that are available and can be used for further investigations,
such as scit-learn – Python (Amrit et al. 2017; Takahashi
and Evans 2018), randomForest R package (Askland et al.
2015), MARSS R package (Wang et al. 2016), the Matlab
biolearning toolbox (Battista et al. 2017), MALLET Java
(Wang et al. 2016) as well as various other Python and R
packages (Walsh et al. 2017), rather than re-implementing
the methods. It is recommended that researchers using AI
techniques clearly define the algorithms developed and
indicate the available tools so that other colleagues could
benefit. The use of commonly available toolboxes facilitates
validation of the results, as well as further comparative
analysis when new techniques are proposed. Nevertheless,
the availability and use of general tools also leads to lim-
itations of the studies as many AI methods are often
employed as “black box” solutions while also requiring fine
parameter adjustments. Such approaches may significantly
undermine the studies results’ generalizability.
In terms of the challenges of using artificial intelligence,
one has to ensure that ethical principles are respected, such
as confidentiality, or data access. It is also important that the
AI algorithms are powerful and scalable, and also trans-
parent to inspection, robust against manipulation and pre-
dictable (Bostrom and Yudkowski 2014). Helbing et al.
(2019) discussed the advances that the field of artificial
intelligence is making and some of the its challenges,
including the fact that, for example, algorithms know what
people do and these software platforms might be able to
manipulate people perform different actions. Similarly,
Camp and Huber (2017) discussed the balance of risk
between information being unavailable and too available,
for older adults, for example, when using continuous versus
alert-driven technology for caregiving purposes. The use of
artificial intelligence and continuous monitoring allows for
alerts when elders need most help, but the issue about these
recorded data is difficult to solve, and while real-time
webcams are helpful for some, others might only need event
specific alerts.
Due to the accelerating use of AI in many disciplines
including behavioral and social sciences, a limitation of this
article might be that its static nature, meaning that the
research has been reviewed up to a specific time. The
extreme diversity encountered in the data sets used also
placed limitations on making specific recommendations on
the methods. To account for this it is recommended that
readers refer to the articles cited for further details on the
specifics of data structures. Furthermore, despite the recent
focus on machine learning, artificial intelligence research is
much broader. Given the significant increase in AI meth-
odologies used in Social and Behavioral Sciences it is
2964
recommended that future in-depth analysis is conducted on
specific AI areas that are also progressing, such as robotics
or natural language processing. Finally, future in depth
research is encouraged on specific areas of social and
behavioral sciences, such as social and human services,
early childhood education, or clinical practice.
With the increase in data and data analysis capacities,
there are increased opportunities for sharing of data and
establish scientific collaborative multidisciplinary investi-
gations to increase efficacy and effectiveness, engage policy
makers and the civil society in order to fully realize the
transformation for social good (Panch et al. 2018). AI has
the potential to greatly contribute to science and society and
developing partnerships between computer scientists and
scholars in behavioral and social sciences to solve complex
problems (Rudin and Wagstaff 2014). The increased
opportunities for stimulating interdisciplinary work have the
potential for developing creative solutions which could
result in improved services and improved quality of life.
Author Contributions M.R. and S.A.R.: co-designed the study, con-
ducted research review, analyzed the data and wrote the paper. In the
introduction section M.R. wrote the sections focused on social and
behavioral science and S.A.R. wrote the sections focused on AI.
Compliance with Ethical Standards
Conflict of Interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of
interest.
Ethical Approval Research involving human participants and/ or ani-
mals: This article does not contain any studies with human participants
or animals performed by any of the authors.
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to
jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
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