When cognitive offloading becomes dependence: how AI dependence mediates the pathway from academic stress to burnout and anxiety
Wenlong Wang, Yuhang Wu, Jie Fang, Chong Yang, Langyi Wen · 2026
Read When cognitive offloading becomes dependence: how AI dependence mediates the pathway from academic stress to burnout and anxiety by Wenlong Wang, Yuhang Wu, Jie Fang, Chong Yang, Langyi Wen (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13430763.txt.
Description
Wenlong Wang and colleagues ask whether reliance on generative AI turns academic stress into burnout and anxiety among college students. AI tools are now common in study life, yet their role in unhealthy coping was unclear.
A survey of 1,623 students measured academic stress, AI dependence, self-efficacy, burnout, and anxiety, with sequential mediation models run for burnout and anxiety separately. Stress predicted both burnout and anxiety, and the path ran through rising AI dependence, which may cut mastery experiences and breed further reliance. Universities get a warning that AI help can quietly become a crutch under pressure.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Wenlong Wang, Yuhang Wu, Jie Fang, Chong Yang, Langyi Wen |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 43 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |