This study, guided by a strengths-based perspective in positive psychology, explores children's attitudes toward and needs for large language model (LLM) based socio-emotional companions, considering how LLM-based chatbots might foster children's socio-emotional support. Using a mixed-methods design, we conducted questionnaire surveys (N = 43) and two rounds of in-depth interviews (N = 22) with children aged 10-18 residing in a welfare institution in Tibet. We examine their perceptions of artificial intelligence (AI) and expectations for an "AI smart friend". Findings indicated that: (1) The need for emotional companionship was urgent, with peer support serving as the primary resource (23 children reported turning to friends when feeling sad); (2) acceptance of AI companions is high (85% reported "somewhat want" or "very much want"), with expectations that AI would primarily provide academic tutoring and emotional support, especially as a proactive encourager (57% of interviewees favored an "encourager" persona); (3) trust is defined by clear ethical boundaries, with "no disclosure of secrets" forming the strongest consensus (mentioned by 37 participants), and many children noted that AI lacks the "warmth" and "emotion" of real humans. Overall, AI socio-emotional companions show potential in meeting children's emotional and learning needs, providing useful insights for the design of future AI support systems.

1. Alotaibi, J. O., & Alshahre, A. S. (2024). The role of conversational AI agents in providing support and social care for isolated individuals. Alexandria Engineering Journal, 108, 273-284. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2024.07.098

2. Berson, I. R., Berson, M. J., & Luo, W. (2025). Innovating responsibly: Ethical considerations for AI in early childhood education. AI, Brain and Child, 1(1), 2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44436-025-00003-5

3. Boord, M. (1988). Death and dying; the Tibetan tradition. Glenn H. Mullin. and death, intermediate state and rebirth in Tibetan Buddhism Lati Rinpoche and Jeffrey Hopkins. Buddhist Studies Review, 5(2), 182-184. https://doi.org/10.1558/bsrv.v5i2.15925

4. Bravansky, M., Trhlik, F., & Barez, F. (2025). Rethinking AI cultural alignment (No. arXiv:2501.07751). arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2501.07751

5. Celano, C. M., Gomez-Bernal, F., Mastromauro, C. A., Beale, E. E., DuBois, C. M., Auerbach, R. P., & Huffman, J. C. (2020). A positive psychology intervention for patients with bipolar depression: A randomized pilot trial. Journal of Mental Health, 29(1), 60-68. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638237.2018.1521942

6. Chaturvedi, R., Verma, S., Das, R., & Dwivedi, Y. K. (2023). Social companionship with artificial intelligence: Recent trends and future avenues. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 193, 122634. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2023.122634

7. Eke, D. O., Wakunuma, K., & Akintoye, S. (2023). Responsible AI in Africa: Challenges and opportunities. Palgrave Macmillan.

8. Fox, N. A., Almas, A. N., Degnan, K. A., Nelson, C. A., & Zeanah, C. H. (2011). The effects of severe psychosocial deprivation and foster care intervention on cognitive development at 8 years of age: Findings from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 52(9), 919-928. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2010.02355.x

9. Han, E., Yin, D., & Zhang, H. (2023). Bots with feelings: Should AI agents express positive emotion in customer service? Information Systems Research, 34(3), 1296-1311. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2022.1179

10. Higgins, O., Short, B. L., Chalup, S. K., & Wilson, R. L. (2023). Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) based decision support systems in mental health: An integrative review. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 32(4), 966-978. https://doi.org/10.1111/inm.13114

11. Intahphuak, S., Kidhathong, S., & Tipwareerom, W. (2025). Caregivers' perspectives about health and psychosocial wellbeing of next generation of hill tribe children in institutional care in northern Thailand: A descriptive qualitative study. Residential Treatment for Children & Youth, 42(3), 404-419. https://doi.org/10.1080/0886571X.2024.2390060

12. Jayawickreme, E., Infurna, F. J., Alajak, K., Blackie, L. E. R., Chopik, W. J., Chung, J. M., Dorfman, A., Fleeson, W., Forgeard, M. J. C., Frazier, P., Furr, R. M., Grossmann, I., Heller, A. S., Laceulle, O. M., Lucas, R. E., Luhmann, M., Luong, G., Meijer, L., McLean, K. C., Park, C. L., Roepke, A. M., Al Sawaf, Z., Tennen, H., White, R. M. B., & Zonneveld, R. (2021). Post-traumatic growth as positive personality change: Challenges, opportunities, and recommendations. Journal of Personality, 89(1), 145-165. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12591

13. Kaur, D., Uslu, S., Rittichier, K. J., & Durresi, A. (2022). Trustworthy artificial intelligence: A review. ACM Computing Surveys, 55(2), 1-38. https://doi.org/10.1145/3491209

14. Koydemir, S., Sökmez, A. B., & Schütz, A. (2021). A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of randomized controlled positive psychological interventions on subjective and psychological well-being. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 16(3), 1145-1185. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-019-09788-z

15. Kurian, N. (2025). AI's empathy gap: The risks of conversational artificial intelligence for young children's well-being and key ethical considerations for early childhood education and care. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 26(1), 132-139. https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491231206004

16. Lan, J., & Huang, Y. (2025). Performing intimacy: Curating the self-presentation in human-AI relationships. Emerging Media, 3(2), 305-317. https://doi.org/10.1177/27523543251334157

17. Lee, W. Y. (2024). Roots and routes: Funeral practices and land-based identities in the Yunnan-Tibetan borderlands. The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 25(5), 394-412.

18. Merrill, K., Mikkilineni, S. D., & Dehnert, M. (2025). Artificial intelligence chatbots as a source of virtual social support: Implications for loneliness and anxiety management. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1549(1), 148-159. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.15400

19. Mishra, A., Sharma, K., Tiwari, V., & Menon, S. (2025). AI and mental well-being: The influence of AI companions on loneliness and emotional health in urban families. International Journal for Multidisciplinary Research, 7(2). https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2025.v07i02.42541

20. Nsabimana, E., Rutembesa, E., Wilhelm, P., & Martin-Soelch, C. (2019). Effects of institutionalization and parental living status on children's self-esteem, and externalizing and internalizing problems in Rwanda. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 10, 442. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00442

21. Pentina, I., Hancock, T., & Xie, T. (2023). Exploring relationship development with social chatbots: A mixed-method study of replika. Computers in Human Behavior, 140, 107600. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2022.107600

22. Shank, D. B., Graves, C., Gott, A., Gamez, P., & Rodriguez, S. (2019). Feeling our way to machine minds: People's emotions when perceiving mind in artificial intelligence. Computers in Human Behavior, 98, 256-266. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.04.001

23. Sharma, A., Lin, I. W., Miner, A. S., Atkins, D. C., & Althoff, T. (2023). Human-AI collaboration enables more empathic conversations in text-based peer-to-peer mental health support. Nature Machine Intelligence, 5(1), 46-57. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-022-00593-2

24. Siddals, S., Torous, J., & Coxon, A. (2024). "It happened to be the perfect thing": Experiences of generative AI chatbots for mental health. NPJ Mental Health Research, 3(1), 48. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44184-024-00097-4

25. Ta, V., Griffith, C., Boatfield, C., Wang, X., Civitello, M., Bader, H., DeCero, E., & Loggarakis, A. (2020). User experiences of social support from companion chatbots in everyday contexts: Thematic analysis. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(3), e16235. https://doi.org/10.2196/16235

26. Thakkar, A., Gupta, A., & De Sousa, A. (2024). Artificial intelligence in positive mental health: A narrative review. Frontiers in Digital Health, 6, 1280235. https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2024.1280235

27. Tottenham, N., Hare, T. A., Quinn, B. T., McCarry, T. W., Nurse, M., Gilhooly, T., Millner, A., Galvan, A., Davidson, M. C., Eigsti, I. M., Thomas, K. M., Freed, P. J., Booma, E. S., Gunnar, M. R., Altemus, M., Aronson, J., & Casey, B. J. (2010). Prolonged institutional rearing is associated with atypically large amygdala volume and difficulties in emotion regulation. Developmental Science, 13(1), 46-61. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00852.x

28. van der Meulen, K., Granizo, L., & del Barrio, C. (2021). Emotional peer support interventions for students with SEND: A systematic review. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 797913. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.797913

29. van IJzendoorn, M. H., Palacios, J., Sonuga-Barke, E. J. S., Gunnar, M. R., Vorria, P., McCall, R. B., LeMare, L., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., Dobrova-Krol, N. A., & Juffer, F. (2011). Children in institutional care: Delayed development and resilience. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 76(4), 8-30. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5834.2011.00626.x

30. Vistorte, A. O. R., Deroncele-Acosta, A., Ayala, J. L. M., Barrasa, A., López-Granero, C., & Martí-González, M. (2024). Integrating artificial intelligence to assess emotions in learning environments: A systematic literature review. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, 1387089. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1387089

31. Voyce, M. (2020). Organ transplants and the medicalisation of death: Dilemmas for Tibetan buddhists. Contemporary Buddhism, 21(1-2), 190-200. https://doi.org/10.1080/14639947.2020.1734734

32. Wang, G., Zhao, J., Van Kleek, M., & Shadbolt, N. (2022). Informing age-appropriate AI: Examining principles and practices of AI for children. In S. Barbosa, C. Appert, C. Lampe, D. A. Shamma, K. Yatani, S. Drucker, & J. Williamson (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-29). ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3491102.3502057

33. Wang, H., Xu, J., Fu, S., Tsang, U. K., Ren, H., Zhang, S., Hu, Y., Zeman, J. L., & Han, Z. R. (2024). Friend emotional support and dynamics of adolescent socioemotional problems. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 53(12), 2732-2745. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-024-02025-3

34. Zhang, L. (2024). [Ethical challenges of "resurrecting" the dead with AI technologies]. People's Tribune, (11), 55-58. https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1004-3381.2024.11.012

35. Zhou, Y., Duan, Y., Zhou, J., Qin, N., Liu, X., Kang, Y., Wan, Z., Zhou, X., Li, Y., Luo, J., Xie, J., & Cheng, A. S. (2024). Character strength-based cognitive-behavioral therapy focusing on adolescent and young adult cancer patients with distress: A randomized control trial of positive psychology. Journal of Happiness Studies, 25(7), 84. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-024-00795-y