MEDIATING ROLE OF AI DEPENDENCY IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AI LITERACY AND ACADEMIC PROCRASTINATION AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

With the growing application of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in higher education, opportunities and challenges have arisen for students' academic behaviors. The current study aimed to explore the mediation effect of AI dependency between AI literacy and academic procrastination among university students. The research design used was quantitative cross-sectional with a sample of 300 university students (150 males and 150 females) and scales selected are the Artificial Intelligence Literacy Scale, Generative AI Dependency Scale, and Academic Procrastination Scale. Descriptive statistics, Pearson product–moment correlations, regression analyses and bootstrapped mediation analysis were used to analyze the data. The results showed that the AI literacy level had a significant predictive effect on academic procrastination and dependency on AI. Also, there was a positive correlation between AI literacy and academic procrastination and AI dependency. The direct regression analysis, however, did not significantly predict academic procrastination by the dependency of AI. Nevertheless, the mediation analysis showed that between the AI literacy and academic procrastination, there was a significant mediation effect of AI dependency. The results indicate that the link between AI literacy and academic procrastination is more complex than initially thought, and AI dependency might be a significant underlying mechanism that connects AI-related skills to academic behaviors. The study adds to the existing research on AI in education and emphasizes the need for responsible and balanced AI utilization among university students.