Designing Emotional Support Chatbots with Enhanced Active Listening Through Prompt Engineering

The increasing number of international students grappling with mental health challenges necessitates innovative solutions. This study addresses this issue by developing an emotionally supportive chatbot equipped with active listening capabilities through prompt engineering. Given the severe consequences of mental health issues, including suicide, and the growing recognition of mental health as equally important as physical health, this research aims to contribute to a critical area of need. Evaluation results indicate that the developed chatbot is perceived positively in terms of its appropriateness, support, and utility. While the chatbot was well-received, feedback also suggested areas for improvement, such as reducing response length.