Virtual Relational Agents and the Psychology of Student Well-Being: A Theoretically Grounded Developmental Study of Digital Mental Health Support

Asawinee Tonkuriman

School of Nursing, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai, 57000, Thailand.

Charoenchai Wongwatkit

School of Information Technology, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai, 57000, Thailand.

Surichai Kidhathong

School of Nursing, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai, 57000, Thailand

Arunya Inson

Faculty of Nursing, Uttaradit Rajabhat University, Uttaradit, 53000, Thailand.

Abstract

Rapid societal disruption associated with the COVID-19 pandemic intensified psychological distress among university students, revealing both the heightened vulnerability of young adults and the limitations of existing institutional mental health provision. Beyond the practical inadequacy in service availability, a more theoretically significant issue arises concerning whether digitally mediated agents can function as authentic sources of perceived interpersonal and relational support. Drawing on contemporary frameworks in social cognition, self-efficacy theory, and mediated communication, this study investigates the development and preliminary evaluation of a virtual relational agent designed to assist students experiencing stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. The research was implemented in two sequential phases within a Research and Development design. The first phase involved the conceptualisation and technical construction of a virtual influencer system intended to simulate supportive social interaction while encouraging self-regulatory behaviour and reflective coping strategies. Content validity was assessed by a panel of interdisciplinary experts in mental health and technology, yielding exceptionally strong validity indices (CVI = 0.97–1.00). The second phase examined initial effectiveness using a sample of 30 university students who accessed the intervention through a continuously available web-based platform. Post-intervention results indicated that 86.67% of participants reported significant reductions in self-assessed levels of depression, anxiety, and stress (p < .01), alongside generally positive evaluations of the system’s perceived psychological usefulness. These findings suggest that digitally embodied agents may extend beyond informational support tools to act as meaningful psychological mediators that enhance perceived support and self-efficacy. Accordingly, such systems may complement conventional mental health services by offering accessible, flexible, and confidential forms of guidance while sustaining users’ sense of personal agency. Further investigation is required to determine the durability of observed effects, to examine the experiential and relational dynamics between users and artificial agents, and to address broader philosophical questions regarding technologically mediated care within contemporary understandings of cognition, mental processes, and behaviour.

Virtual Relational Agents; Mediated Social Cognition; Student Well-Being; Self-Efficacy; Digital Mental Health; Psychological Support Systems.