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The study covered more than 5,500 students at 21 U.S. schools. Researchers cannot tell whether AI worsens distress or struggling students are more likely to seek it out.
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JED’s report, released October 27, finds that the mental-health associations depend on how teens use AI: overall use was not linked to worse mental health, while companionship, advice-seeking and use during distress showed different associations. The survey covered more than 5,500 students at 21 U.S. schools, but its observational design cannot show whether AI use worsens well-being or struggling students are more likely to turn to AI. JED urges technology companies and policymakers to connect distressed young users with human support.
Schoolwork was the most common stated use of AI (58%), followed by relationship or problem-solving advice (28%) and friendship or companionship (12%).
Fifty-seven percent said they used AI while sad, stressed, lonely or overwhelmed; only 8% specifically sought help with their feelings in those situations.
Middle schoolers and female students were more likely to report using AI while emotionally struggling; JED also reported differences across racial and ethnic groups.
Students who used AI for companionship reported more anxiety, depression symptoms and loneliness, according to a survey report the Jed Foundation released October 27. They also reported greater lifetime histories of suicidal thoughts and attempts. The findings raise concerns about AI’s role in young people’s emotional lives, but do not establish that AI caused those outcomes.
Kayla Anderson, JED’s vice president of research and evaluation and the report’s author, told NPR that the relationship could run in different directions. Students already struggling may be more likely to turn to AI; AI use might also contribute to poorer well-being. The survey cannot distinguish between those explanations, leaving a central question about the technology’s effects unanswered.
The research analyzed responses collected between October 2025 and April 2026 from more than 5,500 middle and high school students. They attended 21 U.S. schools enrolled in JED’s programs. The report was developed with input from the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital and funded by the Nielsen Foundation.
Researchers asked how and why students used AI, alongside questions about recent anxiety and depression symptoms, loneliness, well-being and histories of suicidal thoughts and attempts. That allowed them to examine whether particular uses appeared alongside particular mental-health measures, rather than treating every interaction with AI as the same activity.
JED found no connection between overall AI use and worse mental health, The National News Desk reported. The associations emerged when researchers separated uses. Schoolwork was the most common stated purpose, at 58%; 28% sought relationship or problem-solving advice, and 12% used AI for friendship or companionship.
Being distressed while using AI was much more common than explicitly asking it for emotional help. JED reported that more than half used AI when sad, stressed, lonely or overwhelmed. Yet only a small minority said they specifically sought help with their feelings in those situations, according to The National News Desk.
Students who said they used AI when sad, stressed, lonely or overwhelmed.
Students who said they specifically sought help with their feelings from AI in those situations.
The patterns also differed across groups. Middle schoolers and female students were more likely to use AI while emotionally struggling than high schoolers and male students. American Indian or Alaska Native, Black, Hispanic and multiracial students were more likely to report that use than white students, JED said.
JED’s recommendations put responsibility on technology companies and policymakers as well as families. The foundation says AI systems should recognize young people’s distress and connect them with real support, rather than replace trusted adults. Its report includes recommendations for the AI industry, policymakers, youth-serving professionals, and parents and caregivers.
For families, Anderson’s advice was more direct: JED recommends against young people using AI as a friend or companion. She told The National News Desk that parents should start conversations early and keep asking what their children use AI to do. The aim, she said, is to avoid handing too much thinking and relationship work to the technology and to keep human connection central.
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