{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,11,2]],"date-time":"2026-11-02T21:38:52Z","timestamp":1793655532496,"version":"4.5.1"},"reference-count":73,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,30]],"date-time":"2025-05-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1748563200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The present study aimed to examine the relationship between depression and the use of conversational AI for companionship (UCAI-C) among college students. It further sought to investigate the mediating role of loneliness and the moderating roles of gender and mind perception in this association.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 1,379 college students (Mean age = 21.93 years; 616 females, 763 males) using four validated instruments. Structural equation modeling was employed for data analysis.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Depression was found to be positively associated with UCAI-C. This relationship was significantly mediated by loneliness. Moreover, both gender and mind perception moderated the pathways between depression, loneliness, and UCAI-C.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The findings illustrate how individuals\u2019 mental states can influence their use of companion AI. They highlight significant individual differences (gender and mind perception) in these relationships, contributing to the theoretical understanding of factors governing human interaction with AI chatbots.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2025.1580826","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,30]],"date-time":"2025-05-30T01:45:28Z","timestamp":1748569528000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":34,"title":["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"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Lizu","family":"Lai","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yiyu","family":"Pan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ranyuan","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yanglang","family":"Jiang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"85","DOI":"10.11621\/pir.2024.0206","article-title":"The emotional intelligence of the GPT-4 large language model","volume":"17","author":"Vzorin","year":"2024","journal-title":"Psychol Russia"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2196\/52597","article-title":"Large language models and empathy: systematic review","author":"Sorin","year":"2024","journal-title":"J Med Internet Res"},{"key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"589","DOI":"10.1001\/jamainternmed.2023.1838","article-title":"Comparing physician and artificial intelligence chatbot responses to patient questions posted to a public social media forum","volume":"183","author":"Ayers","year":"2023","journal-title":"JAMA Intern Med"},{"key":"ref4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"46","DOI":"10.1038\/s42256-022-00593-2","article-title":"Human\u2013AI collaboration enables more empathic conversations in text-based peer-to-peer mental health support","volume":"5","author":"Sharma","year":"2023","journal-title":"Nat Mach Intell"},{"key":"ref5","author":"Zhao","year":"2023"},{"key":"ref6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e2319112121","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2319112121","article-title":"AI can help people feel heard, but an AI label diminishes this impact","volume":"121","author":"Yin","year":"2024","journal-title":"Proc Natl Acad Sci"},{"key":"ref7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"37","DOI":"10.1080\/17434440.2021.2013200","article-title":"Artificially intelligent chatbots in digital mental health interventions: a review","volume":"18","author":"Boucher","year":"2021","journal-title":"Expert Rev Med Devices"},{"key":"ref8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1559","DOI":"10.1007\/s12369-022-00880-3","article-title":"General attitudes towards robots scale (GAToRS): a new instrument for social surveys","volume":"14","author":"Koverola","year":"2022","journal-title":"Int J Soc Robot"},{"key":"ref9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"115","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-030-67303-1_10","article-title":"Artificial intelligence for Chatbots in mental health: opportunities and challenges.","volume-title":"Multiple perspectives on artificial intelligence in healthcare","author":"Denecke","year":"2021"},{"key":"ref10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"122634","DOI":"10.1016\/j.techfore.2023.122634","article-title":"Social companionship with artificial intelligence: recent trends and future avenues","volume":"193","author":"Chaturvedi","year":"2023","journal-title":"Technol Forecast Soc Chang"},{"key":"ref11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"524","DOI":"10.1089\/cyber.2024.0309","article-title":"The rise of AI companions and the quest for authentic connection","volume":"27","author":"Wiederhold","year":"2024","journal-title":"Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw"},{"key":"ref12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"02666669241257206","DOI":"10.1177\/02666669241257206","article-title":"Acceptance and use of artificial intelligence and AI-based applications in education: a meta-analysis and future direction","author":"Ali","year":"2024","journal-title":"Inf Dev"},{"key":"ref13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"101925","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tele.2022.101925","article-title":"What factors contribute to the acceptance of artificial intelligence? 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