ReviewJournal of multidisciplinary healthcare2026
The Impact of Chatbots on Adolescent Mental Health Development: A Comprehensive Literature Review.
Review in Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Debate: Conversational AI and young people's mental health - friend or foe? - conversational AI and young people's mental health: the case for clinically informed design.Child and adolescent mental health · 2026Article
- Post-competition psychological recovery in elite adolescent athletes: a technology-scaffolded perspective.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Generative Artificial Intelligence Use and Adolescent Mental Health.Current pediatrics reports · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots in adolescent mental health care represents a transformative shift in how digital interventions address psychological well-being among young populations. This comprehensive review synthesizes evidence examining the multifaceted impact of chatbot technology on adolescent mental health development. A systematic search was conducted across PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and Scopus databases using terms related to chatbots, conversational agents, adolescents, and mental health. Following PRISMA guidelines, 80 studies published between 2020 and 2025 were included after screening 1247 initial records and excluding duplicates and irrelevant articles. Through systematic analysis, we explore the complex relationships between chatbot usage and emotional health, social development, cognitive functioning, and behavioral patterns among adolescents aged 10-24 years. The review reveals that chatbots demonstrate moderate effectiveness in reducing psychological distress (g = -0.46 to -0.10) and show promise in addressing barriers to mental health care access, particularly stigma-related concerns. However, emerging evidence also highlights potential risks including dependency, social withdrawal, and privacy concerns. The findings suggest that while chatbots offer valuable supplementary mental health support, careful consideration of ethical implications, cultural adaptations, and long-term developmental effects is essential for responsible implementation.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.