In my master’s thesis, I explore the use of artificial intelligence among adolescents for the purposes of counselling and psychosocial support. During adolescence, young people face numerous personal, emotional, social and other forms of distress. Alongside traditional forms of support, such as the school counselling service, digital forms of support are becoming increasingly established. Among these, artificial intelligence tools occupy a special place, as they are more accessible and anonymous for adolescents and are often perceived as non-judgmental. The central problem of my master’s thesis is whether and how often secondary school students use artificial intelligence when dealing with personal issues and distress, what advantages and limitations they attribute to it, and how they compare it with talking to a school counsellor. The aim of the thesis is to examine the prevalence of artificial intelligence use among secondary school students, identify the types of difficulties for which they use it, determine which reasons influence their choice of artificial intelligence instead of the school counselling service, and explore how adolescents assess the effectiveness of both forms of support. In the empirical part, a combined quantitative and qualitative research approach was used. Data were collected through an online questionnaire on the Arnes 1KA platform, and the study included 304 secondary school students from Slovenia. The quantitative part mainly consisted of closed-ended questions, while the qualitative part included open-ended responses, which provided additional insight into the respondents’ experiences.
The results show that artificial intelligence is widely used among secondary school students, although most often for schoolwork, learning and general questions. A smaller, yet still significant, proportion of adolescents use it to discuss personal, emotional or social difficulties. A total of 27.4 % of respondents use it for this purpose at least once a week. The most important reasons for choosing artificial intelligence instead of talking to a school counsellor were anonymity, constant availability, quick response and reduced fear of being judged.At the same time, the results show that adolescents primarily recognise the advantages of the school counselling service in its professional expertise, personal contact and human relationship; however, they turn to it relatively rarely for various difficulties. Artificial intelligence is perceived as useful mainly for short-term help, clarifying thoughts, seeking advice and obtaining quick support, while the school counselling service remains important for professional, personal and longer-term support in dealing with distress.The main contribution of the master’s thesis is its insight into the relatively new field of artificial intelligence use among Slovenian secondary school students for the purposes of counselling and psychosocial support. The main finding of the master’s thesis is that artificial intelligence can represent an important complementary source of support for adolescents, but it cannot replace the professional knowledge, personal relationship and holistic understanding provided by the school counselling service.
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