With the continuing rise in psychological stress among young people and the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence technologies, chatbots have gradually become a new channel for emotional expression and emotional support among youth. Drawing on the ABC Attitude Model, this study applies grounded theory to analyze semi-structured interview data from 17 young users aged 1534, exploring their attitudinal structure and behavioral responses when using chatbots for emotional support. The findings show that young users exhibit both instrumental endorsement and emotional dependence on chatbots, while simultaneously maintaining vigilance and skepticism regarding their empathic capacity, response quality, and privacy/securityforming a contradictory attitude in which dependence and vigilance coexist. On this basis, users develop behavioral regulation strategies such as boundary setting and control of usage frequency. The article constructs an interactive mechanism of cognitionambivalent attitudebehavioral intention, revealing a pattern of reflexive dependence in youths practices of digital emotional support, and providing theoretical references and practical implications for the design of AI affective products and for youth mental-health services.
Jing Li (Tue,) studied this question.
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