Empathy Before Utility: Quarter-Life Crisis Distress and Perceived Chatbot Empathy as Predictors of Using AI Chatbots as an Emotional Coping Strategy in Emerging Adulthood

Abstract

Sora Pazer

Emerging adults between the ages of 25 and 35 increasingly report a phase of biographical destabilisation that has come to be described as the quarter-life crisis, and they encounter this phase at a historical moment in which conversational artificial intelligence is continuously available, socially unembarrassing, and free of charge. The present study asks which factors determine whether psychological distress in this life phase is translated into the use of an AI chatbot as an emotional coping strategy, and whether such use is associated with the severity of depressive symptomatology once distress itself is held constant. A cross-sectional online survey of German-speaking emerging adults (N = 130; Mage = 30.16, SD = 3.08; 56.9 % female) assessed quarter-life crisis severity, chatbot use as coping, burnout symptoms, depressive symptoms (PHQ-9), perceived chatbot empathy, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use. Hierarchical regression showed that crisis severity predicted chatbot coping use (β = .278, p = .001) and that the acceptance block added substantial variance (ΔR2 = .308, p < .001), with perceived empathy emerging as the dominant predictor (β = .684, p < .001) and perceived usefulness losing predictive force once empathy was entered (β = -.171, p = .132). Perceived empathy did not moderate the crisis-to-use path (p = .304). A bootstrapped mediation test found no indirect effect of crisis severity on depressive symptoms through chatbot use (ab = .016, 95 % CI [-.022, .059]). Distressed emerging adults turn to conversational agents primarily because these agents feel understanding rather than because they seem useful, yet such use neither aggravates nor alleviates symptom load.

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