Chatten som fortrolig – En kvalitativ undersøgelse af unges brug af ChatGPT til social og følelsesmæssig støtte

Key Findings

• — Participants use ChatGPT to understand and manage their own thoughts and feelings, in situations ranging from performance pressure and low self-esteem to psychiatric diagnoses and serious distress; the perceived risk of being misunderstood or judged is lower than with people
• — Most participants are ambivalent about confiding in a chatbot, describe it as feeling 'stupid', worry that others will think they see it as a friend, and keep the use hidden from those close to them
• — Participants and informants name risks: the chatbot can reinforce negative thought patterns, give superficial guidance and in the worst case replace human contact; concern is also raised about what happens to the personal information shared with the company behind ChatGPT
• — The authors point to a need for open dialogue with young people about chatbot use for emotional support and for guidance on safe use, in a context of long waiting times for psychological and psychiatric treatment

Methodology Notes

Exploratory qualitative design: 23 interviews with young people aged 18 to 33 (mean 24; 18 women, 5 men) who use ChatGPT for advice and support, 18 chatbot dialogues shared by nine of them, and eight interviews with key informants from, among others, Center for Digital Psykiatri, Børns Vilkår and Nationalt Videnscenter for Psykologi. Several participants had previously received mental-health treatment though this was not a recruitment criterion. Findings cannot be generalised to all young people. Funded by the Ministry of the Interior and Health; published 29 April 2026; 60 pages plus a 6-page main-results summary. VIVE is an independent research institution under the Danish Ministry of the Interior and Health.

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