Parental Attachment Anxiety and Adolescents' Authentic Self-Disclosure to Generative AI: The Roles of Rumination, Depression, and Gender
Offline survey of 685 Chinese adolescents (324 girls; mean age 13.17) testing how parent-adolescent attachment anxiety relates to adolescents' authentic self-disclosure to generative AI, drawing on cognitive appraisal theory and the computers-are-social-actors paradigm. Attachment anxiety with both father and mother was associated with rumination, rumination with depression, and both rumination and depression with more authentic self-disclosure to generative AI, in a sequential mediation. The rumination-to-depression path was stronger among girls.
Publisher
Health Communication (Taylor & Francis)
Published
23 Sept 2026
Added
today
Key Findings
- 685 Chinese adolescents (324 girls), mean age 13.17, offline survey
- Attachment anxiety with father and with mother were each positively associated with rumination, which was positively associated with depression
- Rumination and depression were each positively associated with authentic self-disclosure to generative AI; the two sequentially mediated the attachment-disclosure link
- Multi-group analysis: the effect of rumination on depression was significantly larger among girls than boys
Methodology Notes
Cross-sectional self-report survey with mediation and multi-group analysis; measures and effect sizes are not in the abstract; no AI system is named. Affiliations: Beijing Jiaotong University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (three authors), Renmin University of China, University of Hong Kong. Verification route: the Taylor & Francis page is walled; abstract and affiliations from the PubMed record (PMID 42775852), dates from Crossref (published online 2026-09-23).
Authors
Yongjie Yue, Pengcheng Wang, Biao Li, Yan Sun, Jilong Wang, Lipeng Yin
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Cite This
APA
Yongjie Yue et al. (2026). Parental Attachment Anxiety and Adolescents' Authentic Self-Disclosure to Generative AI: The Roles of Rumination, Depression, and Gender. Health Communication (Taylor & Francis). https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2026.2734161