Teachers' Artificial Intelligence Anxiety and Psychological Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Artificial Intelligence Self-Efficacy and Attitude

The increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based technologies in educational settings is redefining teachers' professional roles and creating new psychological demands. However, the mechanisms through which AI anxiety affects teachers' psychological well-being have not yet been sufficiently clarified. This study aims to examine the effect of teachers' AI anxiety on psychological well-being within the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model framework and to test the sequential mediating roles of AI self-efficacy and attitudes toward AI in this relationship. The study was conducted with 432 teachers working in different school types (M age = 40.59, SD = 8.22). Data were collected using scales measuring AI anxiety, AI self-efficacy, AI attitude, and psychological well-being. The serial mediation model was tested using the PROCESS Macro (Model 6) with 5,000 bootstrap samples. Findings revealed that AI anxiety was negatively related to psychological well-being. However, when mediating variables were included in the model, the direct effect of AI anxiety became insignificant, and the relationship was found to occur entirely through indirect effects. The total indirect effect of AI anxiety on psychological well-being is significant. Specifically, it was found that increased anxiety first weakens AI self-efficacy; decreased self-efficacy negatively affects attitudes toward AI, and this cognitive-emotional process leads to a decline in psychological well-being. The model explains 9.6% of the variance in psychological well-being. These results show that AI-based technological transformation affects teacher well-being not directly, but through the erosion of individual resources and technological evaluation processes. The study contributes to the literature by extending the JD-R model in the context of artificial intelligence and reveals that interventions aimed at strengthening teachers' artificial intelligence self-efficacy and developing positive attitudes can play a critical role in supporting psychological well-being.