An Exploratory Study on the Use of Artificial Intelligence for Emotional Support in Girls

Abstract

The present qualitative action research was carried out to explore the dynamics of Artificial Intelligence use for seeking emotional support among girls. A sample of 8 was selected who were AI Chatbots user girls (N = 8). The sample contained young girls who were involved in seeking emotional support (N=8) from Pakistan. A set of open-ended questions for the in-depth was generated with the help of SMEs, with the assistance of a panel of SMEs following committee approach. The in-depth interviews were conducted with the young AI user girls for emotional support using the finalized interview questions. The text documented through in-depth interviews was transcribed. Thematic analysis was carried out on the qualitative data obtained from the transcriptions of the text. The major themes emerged from the interviews comprised of reasons for seeking emotional support from AI, types of problems shared with AI, consequences of consulting emotional problems with AI, reasons for preferring AI, over humans for emotional support, experiences with AI chatbots and privacy concerns encircling AI understanding of human emotions, long-term impact on dealing with emotions linking to relationship patterns, benefits of using AI for emotional support and attitude towards future use of AI for emotional support. The study has practical implications in the field of cyber, health, clinical, counselling, gender and social psychology.