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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Health Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1477470
This article is part of the Research Topic The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Everyday Well-Being View all 4 articles

Mediating Effects of Artificial Intelligence on the Relationship Between Academic Engagement and Mental Health Among Chinese College Students

Provisionally accepted
Yalin Wang Yalin Wang 1*Hui Wang Hui Wang 2
  • 1 Zhoukou Vocational and Technical College, Zhoukou, China
  • 2 Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Academic engagement of Chinese college students has received increasing research attention due to its impact on Students' Mental health and wellbeing. The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies marked the beginning of a new era in education, offering innovative tools and approaches to enhance learning. Still, it can be viewed from positive and negative perspectives. This study utilizes the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as a theoretical framework to analyze the mediating role of students' attitudes towards AI, perceived social norms, perceived behavioral control, and their intention to use AI technologies in the relationships between Students' academic engagement and Mental health. The study involved a total of 2,423 Chinese college students with a mean age of approximately 20.53 ±1.51 years. The survey was conducted through Questionnaire Star, using a secure website designed specifically for the study. The Hayes' (2022) PROCESS Macro (Version 4.2) Model 80 with SPSS 29.0, a multivariate regression analysis with a chain mediation model that allows for multiple mediators to be tested sequentially, has been used. The statistical test explored the direct and indirect effects of students' engagement (X) on mental health (Y) through a series of mediators: attitude towards AI (M1), subjective norm (M2), perceived behavioral control over AI use (M3), and AI use behavioral intention (M4). The direct positive relationship between engagement and mental health (=.0575; p<.05), as well as identifying key mediating factors such as perceived behavioral control (=.1039; p<.05) and AI use of behavioral intention (=.0672; p<.05), highlights the potential of AI tools in enhancing students' well-being.However, the non-significant mediating effects of attitude towards AI (=.0135), and subjective norms (=-0.0005), suggest that more research is needed to understand the nuances of these relationships fully. Overall, the study contributes to the growing body of literature on the role of AI in education and offers practical implications for improving mental health support in academic settings.

    Keywords: artificial intelligence, Mental Health, Theory of Planned Behavior, attitudes, Subjective norm, behavioral intentions, Perceived behavioral control, Academic engagement

    Received: 07 Aug 2024; Accepted: 16 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wang and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yalin Wang, Zhoukou Vocational and Technical College, Zhoukou, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.