ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1580826
This article is part of the Research TopicMental Health Dynamics for Vulnerable Populations in the Digital Era: Opportunities and ChallengesView all 4 articles
Depression and the use of conversational AI for companionship among college students: The mediating role of loneliness and the moderating effects of gender and mind perception
Provisionally accepted
- Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, Wuhan, China
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The present study aimed to examine the relationship between depression and the use of conversational AI for companionship (UCAI-C) among college students and to investigated the mediating role of loneliness and the moderating roles of gender and mind perception. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 1379 college students (616 females, 763 males, Mage = 21.93) using four instruments. Structural equation modeling was used for analysis. Depression was positively associated with UCAI-C, and this connection was mediated by loneliness. Moreover, gender and mind perception moderated the relationship between depression, loneliness and UCAI-C. The findings illustrate how mental states influence the use of companion AI, highlighting significant individual differences that inform the theoretical underpinnings governing the behavior of AI chatbots.
Keywords: Depression, AI chatbots, companionship, Loneliness, Mind Perception
Received: 21 Feb 2025; Accepted: 16 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 LAI, Pan, Xu and Jiang. 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: Lizu LAI, Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, Wuhan, China
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