The impact of AI anxiety on career decisions of college students

AI anxiety and career decisions — a structural equation modeling study of 315 Chinese college students (grounded in Career Construction Theory) showing that AI anxiety directly and negatively predicts career decisions, and also exerts an adverse indirect effect by undermining career adaptability — with the mediating effect accounting for 63.35% of the total effect. However, the moderating effect of Self Efficacy was insignificant, indicating limited buffering capacity.

Duan, Li, Lin, & Chen (2026) provide direct empirical evidence that career-related AI anxiety — fear of job displacement, diminished employability, and skill obsolescence — impairs students' career confidence, goal clarity, and decision-making. This is a core empirical anchor for the Career Development And Readiness concept's link to AI Anxiety And Stress.

Method

• Sample: 315 Chinese college students via questionnaire survey.
• Design: Structural equation modeling (SEM) grounded in Career Construction Theory.
• Mechanism tested: AI anxiety → career decisions, with career adaptability as mediator and self-efficacy as moderator.

Key Findings

• AI anxiety negatively predicts career decisions — directly and significantly.
• Career adaptability mediates: AI anxiety undermines career adaptability, which in turn harms career decisions; this indirect pathway accounts for 63.35% of the total effect.
• Self-efficacy did not buffer: the moderating effect of self-efficacy was insignificant, indicating limited buffering capacity — anxiety's harm to career decisions is not easily offset by self-belief alone.
• Career decision is multidimensional: encompassing career confidence, goal clarity, knowledge satisfaction, and choice preparedness — all vulnerable to AI anxiety.

Implications

• For Career Development And Readiness: strengthening career adaptability is the key protective mechanism against AI anxiety's career harm — more so than generic self-efficacy.
• For institutions: promote outcome-based education (OBE) reforms, universalize AI Literacy and career-planning courses, and deepen industry-education integration to help students make confident, clear-sighted career decisions in the AI era.
• For AI Anxiety And Stress: quantifies how career anxiety degrades concrete career outcomes, not just Well Being.

Connected Concepts

• AI Anxiety And Stress
• Career Development And Readiness
• Self Efficacy
• AI Literacy
• Higher Ed
• Well Being
• Motivation
• Student Experience

Connected Articles

• Wang Career Adapt Abilities AI Anxiety English 2026 — career adapt-abilities reduce AI anxiety
• Kim AI Anxiety Comprehensive Analysis — comprehensive analysis of AI anxiety
• Ustun AI Anxiety Job Finding Anxiety 2026 — AI anxiety and job-finding anxiety
• AI Literacy Career Adaptability Business 2026 — AI literacy and career adaptability
• Workforce Readiness Smart Manufacturing Wrl 2026 — workforce readiness framework

Citation

Duan, N., Li, L., Lin, G., & Chen, H. (2026). The impact of AI anxiety on career decisions of college students. Scientific Reports, 16, 37648.