---
title: Teenagers Turn to Chatbots to Avoid Burdening the People They Love
description: Thirty young people told researchers at Hopelab and Harvard why they take a bad night to an AI chatbot instead of a friend, a parent or a therapist.
author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
updated: 2026-07-28T15:18:56.256Z
canonical: https://richhealthmagazine.com/article/teens-ai-chatbots-emotional-support-burden
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/teens-ai-emotional-support-59560.webp
categories: Mental Health
content_type: News
region: United States
publication: Rich Health Magazine
access: members
schema_type: Article
---

The first reason young people gave for taking a bad night to an AI chatbot rather than to a person was not the technology at all. It was that they did not want to be a burden.

That is the finding at the centre of a research memo from Hopelab and the Center for Digital Thriving at Harvard Graduate School of Education, drawn from conversations with 30 teenagers aged 14 to 17 and young adults aged 18 to 22. Researchers ran individual interviews and four focus groups, including 22 high school students from across the United States, and deliberately oversampled LGBTQ+ young people and young people of colour. Some of the participants use chatbots for emotional support. Some do not.

## Not Wanting to Be a Burden Came Up First

---

*This article is only available to registered readers. Visit the article URL to read the full piece.*