One in five students surveyed across Ontario school boards said they had used an AI chatbot to help manage their feelings or seek advice about relationships. The students who did were far more likely to report serious emotional problems, loneliness, and a weaker sense of belonging.
The findings come from a study by researchers at the University of Ottawa, reported by Phys.org. The study drew on survey responses from 39,761 students in grades 4 through 12 across four Ontario school boards. Students completed the surveys between May 2025 and March 2026 as part of the Ontario Health and Peer Relations Study.
Of those students, 8,408, about 21 percent, said they had turned to an AI chatbot for emotional support or personal advice, whether about friendships, family, or other relationships.
Kamilla Bonnesen, a postdoctoral fellow at the Brain and Behaviour Lab at the University of Ottawa, led the statistical analysis and co-conceptualized the study. "Of almost 40,000 students, those who leaned on AI for emotional support were much more likely to be struggling with clinical-level emotional issues, greater loneliness and a lower sense of mattering," Bonnesen said.
The numbers behind that finding are substantial. Among students who sought emotional support from AI, 57.7 percent met the study's criteria for serious emotional problems. That compared to 29.2 percent among students who did not use AI for emotional reasons. Even after researchers accounted for demographics, loneliness, sense of mattering, and academic AI use, turning to AI for emotional support was still linked to a 26 percent higher prevalence of clinical-level emotional difficulties.
Bonnesen was careful to note that the data does not show AI causing these outcomes. "This doesn't mean that AI is causing these struggles. Instead, using AI in this way might be a sign that a young person needs more human connection and support," she said.
The study also found that older students were more likely to use AI for emotional reasons, as were racialized and gender-diverse youth compared with their white or male peers. Students who used AI heavily for schoolwork were also more likely to use it for emotional purposes.
Surveys were completed anonymously in school settings and covered AI use, emotional health, loneliness, and sense of mattering. Researchers used statistical models to account for the way students were grouped within schools and to handle incomplete responses.
Tracy Vaillancourt, Canada Research Chair in Youth Mental Health and Violence Prevention and a full professor in the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Education, co-conceptualized the study with Bonnesen. Vaillancourt pointed to a practical takeaway for adults working with young people. "As chatbots become part of young people's daily lives, parents, educators and mental health professionals shouldn't just ask if youth are using AI, but why," Vaillancourt said.
The tendency for students to turn to AI rather than people for emotional support raises questions that schools and families have not yet fully worked through. The researchers suggest that when a student is turning to an AI for emotional reasons, it can serve as a signal that more human connection is needed.
