The Role of Artificial Intelligence Anxiety and Attitudes Toward Artificial Intelligence in University Students' Job Finding Anxiety

AI anxiety, attitudes, and job-finding anxiety — a large correlational survey of 1,057 university students across 35 Turkish universities showing that higher AI anxiety and negative attitudes toward AI are positively associated with job-finding anxiety. Female students, social-science majors, and second-year students reported higher anxiety levels.

Üstün & Danacıoğlu (2026) scale up the career-anxiety evidence base, linking AI-related anxiety and attitudes directly to post-graduation job-finding anxiety. It complements the mechanism-focused studies (Duan et al., Wang et al.) with population-level correlational breadth and demographic patterning.

Method

• Sample: 1,057 students from various faculties and departments across 35 universities in Türkiye.
• Design: Correlational survey, online administration via convenience and snowball sampling.
• Analysis: Correlation, independent-samples t-test, ANOVA, Cohen's d.

Key Findings

• Higher AI anxiety → higher job-finding anxiety. AI-related anxiety is positively associated with post-graduation job-finding anxiety.
• Negative AI attitudes → higher job-finding anxiety. Students with more negative attitudes toward AI report greater employment concern.
• Demographic patterning: female students, social-science majors, and second-year students reported higher anxiety levels — pointing to equity dimensions of AI Anxiety And Stress and Career Development And Readiness.

Implications

• For Career Development And Readiness: employment expectations and job-seeking confidence are shaped by AI attitudes and anxiety; career services should address AI-related emotional responses, not just skills.
• For AI Anxiety And Stress: adds population-scale evidence that AI anxiety is a lived, measurable labor-market concern among students, with identifiable at-risk groups (women, social-science majors, early-year students).
• For equity: the demographic patterning underscores the need for targeted support.

Connected Concepts

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

Connected Articles

• Duan AI Anxiety Career Decisions College 2026 — AI anxiety and career decisions (SEM)
• Wang Career Adapt Abilities AI Anxiety English 2026 — career adapt-abilities reduce AI anxiety
• Kim AI Anxiety Comprehensive Analysis — comprehensive analysis of AI anxiety
• AI Literacy Career Adaptability Business 2026 — AI literacy and career adaptability

Citation

Üstün, A. G., & Danacıoğlu, N. (2026). The Role of Artificial Intelligence Anxiety and Attitudes Toward Artificial Intelligence in University Students' Job Finding Anxiety. Participatory Educational Research, 13(2), 143–164.