AI literacy and creative self-beliefs among Chinese college students: examining the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions.

Introduction With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI), enhancing AI literacy has become a critical objective in higher education. How to leverage AI to foster students' creativity thus emerged as a research focus. Creative self-beliefs (creative self-efficacy and creative personal identity) serve as a key predictor of individual creativity and innovative behavior. However, little is known about the direct and indirect associations of AI literacy on creative self-beliefs among college students. Methods Based on self-efficacy theory, social cognitive theory, and cognitive load theory, this study investigated the relationship between college students' AI literacy and their creative self-beliefs, constructing a moderated mediation model. Standardized scales were employed to survey 644 Chinese college students. Results (1) College students' AI literacy significantly and positively predicted their creative self-beliefs, and problem-solving ability partially mediated the relationship between them. The mediating effect of problem-solving ability accounted for 64.2% of the total effect. (2) Frequency of AI usage moderated both the direct path from AI literacy to creative self-beliefs and the path from problem-solving ability to creative self-beliefs. Discussion These findings provide empirical evidence elucidating how AI literacy influences Chinese college students' creative self-beliefs, highlighting the necessity of aligning AI utilization with core competencies to maximize its value. The study concludes with recommendations for promoting critical engagement with AI tools to fully leverage the technology's potential for enhancing college students' confidence in innovation.

• Publication year

  2026

• Venue

  Frontiers in Psychology

• Publication date

  2026-02-04

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Computer Science, Education, Psychology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1719970PMID 41717459PMCID PMC12913461
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Examining the Double-Edged Sword Effect of AI Usage on Work Engagement: The Moderating Role of Core Task Characteristics Substitution

  2025cited by this paper
• The influence of generative artificial intelligence on creative cognition of design students: a chain mediation model of self-efficacy and anxiety

  2025cited by this paper
• Predicting learner autonomy through AI-supported self-regulated learning: A social cognitive theory approach

  2025cited by this paper
• The impact of AI-supported instructional interventions on students’ creative thinking: a meta-analysis of 56 experimental studies

  2025cited by this paper
• Addressing educational overload with generative AI through dual coding and cognitive load theories.

  2025cited by this paper
• The chain mediating effect of academic anxiety and performance expectations between academic self-efficacy and generative AI reliance

  2025cited by this paper
• Beyond Prompt Engineering: Exploring Collaborative Dialogue with Generative AI for Problem-Solving

  2025cited by this paper
• How and for whom using generative AI affects creativity: A field experiment.

  2025cited by this paper
• Generative Artificial Intelligence Literacy: Scale Development and Its Effect on Job Performance

  2025cited by this paper
• How the affordance and psychological empowerment promoting AI-based medical consultation usage: A mixed-methods approach

  2025cited by this paper
• Creative personal identity in the age of generative AI: A social-cognitive pathway of AI literacy, self-efficacy, and mindset

  2025cited by this paper
• Unlocking student potential: How AI-driven personalized feedback shapes goal achievement, self-efficacy, and learning engagement through a self-determination lens

  2025cited by this paper
• Generative artificial intelligence in secondary education: Applications and effects on students’ innovation skills and digital literacy

  2025cited by this paper
• The mediating digital literacy and the moderating role of academic support in the relationship between artificial intelligence usage and creative thinking in nursing students

  2025cited by this paper
• Mediating effect of AI attitudes and AI literacy on the relationship between career self-efficacy and job-seeking anxiety

  2025cited by this paper
• Exploring the Dynamics of Artificial Intelligence Literacy on English as a Foreign Language Learners’ Willingness to Communicate: The Critical Mediating Roles of Artificial Intelligence Learning Self-Efficacy and Classroom Anxiety

  2025cited by this paper
• Fostering creativity-nurturing behaviors among nurse educators: Investigating the interplay between evidence-based practice climate and artificial intelligence competence self-efficacy.

  2025cited by this paper
• Impact of AI-agent-supported collaborative learning on the learning outcomes of University programming courses

  2025cited by this paper
• Beyond the author: Artificial intelligence, creative writing and intellectual emancipation

  2024cited by this paper
• Developing an artificial intelligence literacy framework: Evaluation of a literacy course for senior secondary students using a project-based learning approach

  2024cited by this paper
• Self-efficacy mechanism in human agency

  2024cited by this paper
• Technology Acceptance Model in Medical Education: Systematic Review

  2024cited by this paper
• Measuring Creative Self-Efficacy: Instrument Development and Validation

  2024cited by this paper
• Driving creativity in the AI-enhanced workplace: roles of self-efficacy and transformational leadership

  2024cited by this paper
• AI advocates and cautious critics: How AI attitudes, AI interest, use of AI, and AI literacy build university students' AI self-efficacy

  2024cited by this paper
• The role of artificial intelligence literacy and innovation mindset in shaping nursing students' career and talent self-efficacy.

  2024cited by this paper
• The mediating effect of digital literacy and self-regulation on the relationship between emotional intelligence and academic stress among university students: a cross-sectional study

  2024cited by this paper
• The effects of self-efficacy, teacher support, and positive academic emotions on student engagement in online courses among EFL university students

  2024cited by this paper
• AI-Powered E-Learning for Lifelong Learners: Impact on Performance and Knowledge Application

  2024cited by this paper
• The effect of university students' self-efficacy on problem-solving disposition: the chained dual mediating role of metacognition disposition and critical thinking disposition

  2024cited by this paper
• The Development and Validation of the Artificial Intelligence Literacy Scale for Chinese College Students (AILS-CCS)

  2024cited by this paper
• Artificial intelligence (AI) -integrated educational applications and college students’ creativity and academic emotions: students and teachers’ perceptions and attitudes

  2024cited by this paper
• Exploring the impact of generative AI-based technologies on learning performance through self-efficacy, fairness & ethics, creativity, and trust in higher education

  2024cited by this paper
• AI’s effect on innovation capacity in the context of industry 5.0: a scoping review

  2024cited by this paper
• Enhancing rural students’ computer science self-efficacy in a robotics-based language arts course

  2024cited by this paper
• The relationship between motivational-cognitive variables, academic self-efficacy of students mediated by parent’s educational expectations, parent-child interaction, and teacher-student interaction

  2024cited by this paper
• Direct and indirect effects of father-child attachment on academic burnout in college students

  2024cited by this paper
• Improving English language skills through learning Mathematic contents: From the expertise reversal effect perspective.

  2023cited by this paper
• Promoting perceived creativity and innovative behavior: Benefits of future problem-solving programs for higher education students

  2023cited by this paper
• Emotional Intelligence and Creative Self-Efficacy among Gifted Children: Mediating Effect of Self-Esteem and Moderating Effect of Gender

  2023cited by this paper
• Computational Thinking Training and Deep Learning Evaluation Model Construction Based on Scratch Modular Programming Course

  2023cited by this paper
• Learning space, students' collaboration, educational outcomes, and interest: Exploring the physical, social and psychological mediators

  2023cited by this paper
• The Relationship between Personality and Creative Self-Beliefs at Different Levels of Personality Hierarchy

  2023cited by this paper
• Explaining variance in self-efficacy among adolescents: the association between mastery experiences, social support, and self-efficacy

  2023cited by this paper
• Can AI really help? The double-edged sword effect of AI assistant on employees' innovation behavior

  2023cited by this paper
• The Effects of Generative AI Platforms on Undergraduates’ Narrative Intelligence and Writing Self-Efficacy

  2023cited by this paper
• Creative Self-Beliefs of Civilian and Military School Students

  2023cited by this paper
• “Connecting concepts helps put main ideas together”: cognitive load and usability in learning biology with an AI-enriched textbook

  2022cited by this paper
• Effects of higher education institutes’ artificial intelligence capability on students' self-efficacy, creativity and learning performance

  2022cited by this paper
• The Expertise Reversal Principle in Multimedia Learning

  2021cited by this paper
• Perceived teacher support and creative self-efficacy: The mediating roles of autonomous motivation and achievement emotions in Chinese junior high school students

  2021cited by this paper
• Self-efficacy and performance feedback: Impacts on cognitive load during creative thinking

  2021cited by this paper
• Affective field during collaborative problem posing and problem solving: a case study

  2020cited by this paper
• Predicting academic performance of students from VLE big data using deep learning models

  2020cited by this paper
• Technology Acceptance, Technological Self-Efficacy, and Attitude Toward Technology-Based Self-Directed Learning: Learning Motivation as a Mediator

  2020cited by this paper
• Non-routine problem solving through the lens of self-efficacy

  2020cited by this paper
• Assessing and understanding entrepreneurial profiles of undergraduate students: implications of heterogeneity for entrepreneurship education

  2020cited by this paper
• Self-efficacy theory

  2020cited by this paper
• Parents’ Creative Self-Concept and Creative Activity as Predictors of Family Lifestyle

  2020cited by this paper
• Hope and Creative Self-Efficacy as Sequential Mediators in the Relationship Between Family Socioeconomic Status and Creativity

  2020cited by this paper
• Creative behavior as agentic action.

  2019cited by this paper
• Self-efficacy beliefs of medical students: a critical review

  2018cited by this paper
• Analyzing the moderating effect of knowledge innovation of tourism and hospitality department teachers on student creative self-efficacy and innovation behaviors by using hierarchical linear modeling

  2018cited by this paper
• The effect of problem-based learning on nursing students' decision making skills and styles

  2017cited by this paper
• Creative Self-Efficacy: The Influence of Affective States and Social Persuasion as Antecedents and Imagination and Divergent Thinking as Consequences

  2017cited by this paper
• Entrepreneurship in Education

  2016cited by this paper
• The Dynamics of Creative Self-Concept: Changes and Reciprocal Relations Between Creative Self-Efficacy and Creative Personal Identity

  2016cited by this paper
• Creative Self-Efficacy: An Exploration of Its Antecedents, Consequences, and Applied Implications

  2016cited by this paper
• Cognitive Offloading.

  2016cited by this paper
• Creative Self-efficacy, Thinking Styles and Artistic Creativity of Art Students

  2014cited by this paper
• The Matthew effect in empirical data

  2014cited by this paper
• Sources of self-efficacy: An investigation of elementary school students in France.

  2011cited by this paper
• Creative self-efficacy development and creative performance over time.

  2011cited by this paper
• Cognitive load theory in health professional education: design principles and strategies

  2010cited by this paper
• Internal and External Dimensions of Computer Self-Efficacy: An Empirical Examination

  2008cited by this paper
• I Am, I Think I Can, and I Do: The Role of Personal Identity, Self-Efficacy, and Cross-Application of Experiences in Creativity at Work

  2007cited by this paper
• Expertise Reversal Effect and Its Implications for Learner-Tailored Instruction

  2007cited by this paper
• Values and Creativity

  2007cited by this paper
• Exploring Learners' Self-Efficacy, Autonomy, and Motivation toward E-Learning

  2007cited by this paper
• Problem-Solving Style and Motivational Attributions

  2007cited by this paper
• The Chinese version of the social problem-solving inventory: some initial results on reliability and validity.

  2005cited by this paper
• Common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies.

  2003cited by this paper
• Creativity as a decision.

  2002cited by this paper
• Social cognitive theory: an agentic perspective.

  1999cited by this paper
• The Psychology of Self-Affirmation: Sustaining the Integrity of the Self

  1988cited by this paper
• Europe's Journal of Psychology ejop.psychopen.eu | 1841-0413 Research Reports Did Curiosity Kill the Cat? Relationship Between Trait Curiosity, Creative Self-Efficacy and Creative Personal Identity

  year unknowncited by this paper

• No citing papers are available for this paper.