Perceived Social Support and Artificial Intelligent Chatbot Addiction Among University Students: The Parallel Mediating Roles of Loneliness and Social Anxiety

This research investigated whether loneliness and social anxiety (SA) serve as parallel mediators between perceived social support (PSS) and university students' Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot addiction. Utilizing a cross-sectional correlational framework, data were gathered from 1,010 university students (724 females and 286 males; Mean age = 21.96 years). To gather the requisite data, the study administered the PSS Scale, the UCLA Loneliness Scale, the SA Scale, and the AI Chatbot Addiction Scale. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analyses, and Hayes' PROCESS Macro (Model 4) were used to analyze the data. The findings indicated that PSS was negatively associated with loneliness, SA, and AI chatbot addiction, whereas both loneliness and SA were positively associated with AI chatbot addiction. After incorporating the mediators into the model, the direct relationship between PSS and AI chatbot addiction became statistically non-significant, while the total indirect effect remained significant. These findings suggest that loneliness and SA fully mediate the relationship between PSS and AI chatbot addiction.