ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Hum. Dyn.
Sec. Digital Impacts
Between Coping Resource and Risk Factor: ChatGPT and Social Media Use in Relation to Anxiety, Depression, and Somatization
Provisionally accepted
- King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: Social media and conversational artificial intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT are increasingly embedded in daily life, raising questions about their impact on mental health. Prior studies link social media use to both psychological distress and coping resources, but little is known about how ChatGPT relates to validated measures of depression, anxiety, and somatization. This study examined whether patterns of ChatGPT use and exposure to mental health content on social media predict mental health outcomes in university students. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 200 students. Participants completed demographic questions, items on social media and ChatGPT use, and three standardized measures: the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), and the Patient Health Questionnaire Somatization Subscale (PHQ-15). Social media and ChatGPT variables (e.g., daily hours, exposure to mental health content, use during stress, impact on sleep/social life) were dichotomized for analysis. Independent-samples t-tests and multiple regression analyses were performed in RStudio, controlling for demographic covariates. Results: Time spent on social media was not significantly related to outcomes. However, exposure to mental health content predicted higher depression, anxiety, and somatization. ChatGPT use showed mixed associations: greater comfort discussing mental health with ChatGPT predicted lower symptoms, while frequent use, reliance during stress, preference over human interaction, and reported sleep disruption were linked to poorer outcomes. Conclusion: Both social media and ChatGPT appear to function as double-edged tools. While maladaptive reliance and disruptive effects predict greater distress, reflective engagement and comfort with AI use may buffer symptoms. These results highlight the need for digital literacy education, clinical awareness of AI use as a coping tool, and design safeguards to mitigate risks while promoting healthy engagement with digital technologies.
Keywords: Anxiety, ChatGPT, Depression, digital coping, Social Media, Somatization, university students
Received: 11 Oct 2025; Accepted: 09 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Arab. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Arwa H Arab
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.