Adolescents' preference for instrumental help-seeking from AI chatbots is positively associated with adaptive coping, which relates to more prosocial behavior and less bullying, consistently across US and HK samples¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (3 entries) · associationalr2·q2·i0–i2
Currency · newest study 2026 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
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q2 i2 Instrumental help-seeking preference is positively correlated with adaptive coping (β = 0.16, p < 0.001) in a SEM on the whole sample. → Huinan Hu 2026
q2 i0 Adaptive coping significantly mediates the link between instrumental help-seeking and both bullying (β = -0.02, p < 0.001) and prosocial behaviors (β = 0.09, p < 0.001). → Huinan Hu 2026 (2)
q2 i0 The positive indirect path from instrumental help-seeking via adaptive coping to prosocial behaviors is significant in both the US (β = 0.08, p < 0.001) and HK (β = 0.09, p < 0.05) samples. → Huinan Hu 2026 (3)
Evidence¶
Huinan Hu 2026¶
Huinan Hu, Mojtaba Habibi Asgarabad, Enyi Jen, H. N. Cheung. (2026). Turn to chatbots for sharing feelings or seeking solutions? Differential associations of preferences for chatbot-mediated self-disclosure and instrumental help-seeking with adolescent interpersonal behaviors in the United States and Hong Kong. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/qm6bg_v1
q2 · i2 · associational · r2
Structural equation model on the whole sample (N = 2023) with conversation preference dummies as exogenous predictors, age and gender controlled; model fit CFI = 0.957, RMSEA = 0.048. The path from instrumental help-seeking to adaptive coping was "positively correlated with adaptive coping (β = 0.22, p < 0.001; β = 0.16, p < 0.001)".
"Path analysis estimated that both self-disclosure and instrumental help-seeking were positively correlated with adaptive coping (β = 0.22, p < 0.001; β = 0.16, p < 0.001)"
Huinan Hu 2026 (2)¶
Huinan Hu, Mojtaba Habibi Asgarabad, Enyi Jen, H. N. Cheung. (2026). Turn to chatbots for sharing feelings or seeking solutions? Differential associations of preferences for chatbot-mediated self-disclosure and instrumental help-seeking with adolescent interpersonal behaviors in the United States and Hong Kong. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/qm6bg_v1
q2 · i0 · associational · r2
Bootstrapped indirect effects (1000 bootstrap samples, 95% CIs) in the whole-sample SEM. The same table reports the indirect effect on prosocial behaviors as β = 0.09, p < 0.001; the maladaptive-coping mediator was not significant for either outcome.
"adaptive coping significantly mediated the relationship between instrumental help-seeking and bullying (β = -0.02, p < 0.001)"
Huinan Hu 2026 (3)¶
Huinan Hu, Mojtaba Habibi Asgarabad, Enyi Jen, H. N. Cheung. (2026). Turn to chatbots for sharing feelings or seeking solutions? Differential associations of preferences for chatbot-mediated self-disclosure and instrumental help-seeking with adolescent interpersonal behaviors in the United States and Hong Kong. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/qm6bg_v1
q2 · i0 · associational · r2
Multi-group bootstrapped indirect effects (Table 3) show the instrumental help-seeking → adaptive coping → prosocial behaviors path is significant in the US sample (β = 0.08, p < 0.001) and HK sample (β = 0.09, p < 0.05), supporting cross-cultural stability.
"Instrumental help → AC →PB 0.09*** 0.15 (0.03) [0.10, 0.21] 0.08*** 0.13 (0.03) [0.08, 0.20] 0.09* 0.15 (0.08) [0.01, 0.30]"
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Adolescents with self-disclosure or instrumental help-seeking preferences show higher adaptive coping and prosocial behaviors, and the self-disclosure group shows the lowest maladaptive coping and bullying, in ANOVA comparisons — related
- US and HK adolescents differ in conversation-topic preferences: HK adolescents more often prefer instrumental help-seeking and self-disclosure, while US adolescents more often report nothing to say to chatbots — related
- In the whole sample, preference for self-disclosure with AI chatbots is associated with higher adaptive coping and lower maladaptive coping, linking to more prosocial behavior and less bullying — related
- The correlates of self-disclosure preference with AI chatbots diverge culturally: positive with adaptive coping in HK but not the US, and positively associated with maladaptive coping in the US but negatively in HK — related
- Mediation effects of self-disclosure preference on interpersonal behaviors are significant in HK adolescents but largely non-significant in US adolescents, where maladaptive coping mediates toward more bullying — related
- Emerging empirical studies report positive associations between generative AI use and international-student adaptation — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
instrumental-help-seeking-chatbots-adaptive-coping-cross-cultural |
title |
Adolescents' preference for instrumental help-seeking from AI chatbots is positively associated with adaptive coping, which relates to more prosocial behavior and less bullying, consistently across US and HK samples |
description |
Adolescents' preference for instrumental help-seeking from AI chatbots is positively associated with adaptive coping, which relates to more prosocial behavior and less bullying, consistently across US and HK samples |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2026 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-12 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
3 — huinan-hu-2026, huinan-hu-2026-2, huinan-hu-2026-3 |
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