Artificial Companionship in Times of Social Isolation: Loneliness, Emotional Relief, and ChatGPT Usage Intentions among Adolescents and Young Adults
Keywords:
loneliness, ChatGPT, adolescents, emotional relief, social support, AI interaction, usage intentionAbstract
Loneliness constitutes one of the most pressing public health challenges among contemporary adolescents and young adults, with growing evidence that AI-powered conversational agents are increasingly deployed as coping mechanisms in contexts of social deficit. The present cross-sectional online survey examined the psychological antecedents of intentional ChatGPT usage as an emotional conversational partner among adolescents and young adults aged 16 to 24 years. A sample of N = 95 participants (55.8% female; M age = 19.94, SD = 2.47) completed adapted Likert-scale instruments assessing perceived loneliness, emotional relief through ChatGPT, perceived social support, and usage intention toward ChatGPT in emotionally demanding situations. Bivariate analyses revealed significant positive associations between loneliness and ChatGPT usage intention (r = .62, p < .001) and between emotional relief and usage intention (r = .71, p < .001), while perceived social support was negatively related to loneliness (r = −.66, p < .001) and to usage intention (r = −.29, p = .006). Multiple regression analysis accounted for 52% of variance in usage intention (R² = .52, F[5, 89] = 19.32, p < .001), with loneliness (β = .44, p < .001) and emotional relief (β = .38, p < .001) emerging as the strongest independent predictors, and social support exerting a significant inhibitory effect (β = −.21, p = .018). A one-way ANOVA revealed significant group differences in usage intention across loneliness severity tertiles (F[2, 92] = 10.47, p < .001). These findings indicate that ChatGPT fulfills a genuine short-term emotional regulation function for socially underserved youth and that perceived social support acts as a protective buffer. Preventive, psychoeducational, and developmental interventions should address the conditions under which AI-based emotional coping becomes a primary response to social deficit.
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