Emotional dependence on AI chatbots: Development and Validation of the AIED Scale

A methodological paper: the construction and validation of a scale measuring adolescents’ emotional dependence on AI chatbots — the tendency to seek comfort, relief and a sense of being understood from a chatbot. Without a reliable instrument nobody can say how much of the phenomenon there is or whether it is growing.

The scale proved consistent (Cronbach’s alpha .89) and measurement-invariant across sexes and school stages — it measures the same thing in boys and girls, in younger and older classes, which allows groups to be compared. Its items describe behaviours familiar from research on attachment and addiction in other contexts.

For this library it is an infrastructural entry: it does not say how bad things are, but makes possible the studies that will. For parents and teachers the items themselves are a useful list of signals — “I seek comfort from the chatbot when I feel bad”, “I feel it understands me better than people do”. Caveat: a psychometric validation, not a study of effects.