Artificial Intelligence Connectedness: Theoretical Reconstruction of Connectedness and Its Impacts on Adolescent Mental Health

The widespread penetration of generative artificial intelligence is reshaping adolescents’ social ecosystems and emotional experiences, while challenging the interpretive boundaries of traditional connectedness theories. Following the logical path of “connotation reconstruction–extension transformation–concept construction”, this study integrates the ethics of care and neo-ecological theory to systematically construct a theoretical framework of artificial intelligence connectedness. First, tracing theories across philosophy, sociology, and psychology, this research reconstructs the core connotation of connectedness rooted in the ethics of care, proposes the continuum hypothesis of caring relationships, and clarifies AI’s unique position on this continuum. Second, from the neo-ecological perspective, this paper sorts out the extended structure of connectedness and demonstrates the ecological shifts brought by the rise of virtual microsystems and the entry of AI actors. On this basis, the study formally defines artificial intelligence connectedness and establishes its three-dimensional structure: demand identification, two-way behavioral engagement, and responsive confirmation. Through systematic comparison with adjacent concepts, this paper identifies its uniqueness and positions it as a specific subtype of connectedness for the digital era. It defines it as a perceived bond that is both psychologically real and ethically asymmetric, carrying asymmetric risks under particular usage conditions and design logics. Finally, this paper builds a dual interpretive framework integrating traditional connectedness and artificial intelligence connectedness, verifies its incremental validity and unique predictive power, and puts forward falsifiable research propositions. This study expands the boundary of connectedness theory and provides an integrated analytical framework for parsing the complex mental health mechanisms of adolescents in the digital age. However, it should be noted that the artificial intelligence connectedness proposed in this study is currently a theoretical construct; its scientific validity and applicability remain to be verified through the development of standardized measurement tools and systematic empirical research.