Network and machine learning analysis of childhood trauma, mental health, and AI-based emotional support needs in adolescents from underdeveloped regions
Jianqiang Wang, Shaoxiong Li, Jing Lv, Yanxin Zhang, Zheng Liu, Ziyan Wang, Yuhan Peng, Congcong Liu, Xuezhu Yu, Yuru Du, Youdong Li · 2026
Read Network and machine learning analysis of childhood trauma, mental health, and AI-based emotional support needs in adolescents from underdeveloped regions by Jianqiang Wang, Shaoxiong Li, Jing Lv, Yanxin Zhang, Zheng Liu, Ziyan Wang, Yuhan Peng, Congcong Liu, Xuezhu Yu, Yuru Du, Youdong Li (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13479577.txt.
Description
Jianqiang Wang and coauthors published a 2026 survey study of adolescents in underdeveloped regions of China, linking childhood trauma, mental health, and the wish for emotional support from chatbots. The sample was very large at 14,380 middle school students. Standard questionnaires measured trauma history and mental health status, and students reported whether they wanted emotional support from generative artificial intelligence.
About 32 percent reported childhood trauma and about 17 percent had mental health problems. Machine learning with explanation tools identified which factors best predicted wanting chatbot support. Network and Bayesian analyses then mapped how trauma, symptoms, and support needs connect. The authors probe why current chatbot support shows limited benefit: the needs it must meet are tangled with trauma histories in ways a generic companion misses.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Jianqiang Wang, Shaoxiong Li, Jing Lv, Yanxin Zhang, Zheng Liu, Ziyan Wang, Yuhan Peng, Congcong Liu, Xuezhu Yu, Yuru Du, Youdong Li |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 32550 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |