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Effectiveness of AI Chatbots in Improving Students' General Wellbeing

NCT06965439 · Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 172

Last updated 2025-05-11

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

The goal of this randomised controlled trial is to evaluate the effectiveness of an AI mental health chatbot in promoting emotional wellbeing and perceived empathy among university students in Singapore with mild or subclinical symptoms of anxiety and depression. The main questions it aims to answer are:

Can the chatbot provide emotional validation and be perceived as empathic?

Does the chatbot reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression and improve wellbeing more than an inactive control condition?

Researchers will compare students who engage in four sessions with the chatbot to students who complete four neutral writing tasks to assess differences in emotional wellbeing, empathy, and resilience.

Participants will:

Complete baseline wellbeing assessments

Be randomised to:

Four 20-minute chatbot sessions providing personalised support using cognitive-behavioural and compassion-focused techniques (intervention group), or

Four 20-minute neutral writing sessions unrelated to mental health (control group)

Complete post-session and follow-up wellbeing questionnaires

All sessions are conducted virtually over Zoom. Participants are full-time students at the National University of Singapore, aged 21 and above. The study aims to inform future development of AI tools for emotional support in non-clinical settings.

Conditions

  • Control Condition
  • Intervention

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

AI-delivered emotional wellbeing support

Participants in this arm will complete four 20-minute sessions with an AI-powered chatbot designed to deliver CBT-based emotional wellbeing support. The chatbot provides conversational guidance using techniques such as cognitive restructuring, behavioural activation, and emotion validation. Sessions are delivered via Zoom, and participants receive structured homework after each session to reinforce learning. The chatbot was not custom-built for this study but is an existing tool provided to NUS students as part of their digital mental health benefits.

OTHER

Neutral writing tasks

Participants in this arm will complete four 20-minute sessions of neutral writing tasks unrelated to mental health. Prompts include writing factually about daily routines or describing an object in detail. The content is emotionally neutral to act as a comparison for the chatbot intervention. Sessions are conducted online via Zoom.

Sponsors & Collaborators

Study Design

Allocation
NA
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
NONE
Model
FACTORIAL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2025-08-01
Primary Completion
2025-10-31
Completion
2025-10-31

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT06965439 on ClinicalTrials.gov