Between a Bot and a Hard Place: Student Engagement, Technology Anxiety and ChatGPT Trust in Higher Education

Between a Bot and a Hard Place: Student Engagement, Technology Anxiety and ChatGPT Trust in Higher Education | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Between a Bot and a Hard Place: Student Engagement, Technology Anxiety and ChatGPT Trust in Higher Education Irene Karayianni, Antonis Klidas, Chryssoula Karakitsou This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6188978/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract While studies have explored factors influencing ChatGPT’s adoption and impact in Higher Education (HE), they have not yet considered how student engagement, technology anxiety, attitudes toward AI and trust interact—key elements shaping students’ effective usage of AI tools. To address this gap, we surveyed a nationwide sample of 422 Greek HE students of various disciplines who completed the Short Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-Student Form, the Abbreviated Technology Anxiety Scale, the ChatGPT Trust Scale and measures of academic usage and attitudes. Student engagement was positively associated with AI attitudes, ChatGPT trust and usage frequency. Technology anxiety was a barrier to adoption, negatively related to AI attitudes while moderating the relationship between trust and usage. Trust predicted usage, perceived usefulness and engagement. Cluster analysis identified two user typologies: high-engagement users, who reported greater trust, confidence and diverse academic ChatGPT applications and low-engagement users, who exhibited lower ChatGPT reliance and received less institutional guidance on AI. The findings point to the need for institutional AI literacy initiatives and structured support. Educational Psychology ChatGPT trust educational technology GenAI higher education student engagement technology anxiety Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6188978","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":426212399,"identity":"ffddd8f4-9b6b-4a7b-bea6-29b458b8c447","order_by":0,"name":"Irene Karayianni","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA3klEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACNh4wJQHEjI0PIGIJxGtpNiBKCwMPknYJorTw8Rx+9uFnm4W8uXRzW8WPmloGfvYcA/wO420zntnbJmG4c87Btps9x44zSPa8IaCFn8GYgbdNgnHDjcS2G7wNxxgMbhCyhZ/9M+PfNgl7kJbCv0At9gS18PYYMwNtSQRpYeZtqGEwkCCkhedMMbPMOYlkoJZmaZljB3gkzjwrwKtFvid9M+ObsjrbDTfSH358U1Mnx9+evAGvFjBgZIMzD/PgUYcM/sBZdUTqGAWjYBSMgpEEABVkRL/TjXgBAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3307-3455","institution":"the American College of Greece","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Irene","middleName":"","lastName":"Karayianni","suffix":""},{"id":426212400,"identity":"40ddccfe-e398-468b-a1ff-e638bd88bcd0","order_by":1,"name":"Antonis Klidas","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"the American College of Greece","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Antonis","middleName":"","lastName":"Klidas","suffix":""},{"id":426212401,"identity":"29f70bfb-caf1-4f4f-9405-c5d97a285942","order_by":2,"name":"Chryssoula Karakitsou","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"the American College of Greece","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Chryssoula","middleName":"","lastName":"Karakitsou","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-03-09 13:47:54","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":true,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":true,"humanSubjectConsent":true,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6188978/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6188978/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":78211923,"identity":"9470a1cb-6aa6-4fb3-9530-dfea094677e5","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-03-11 03:44:53","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":438179,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"BetweenaBotandaHardPlaceStudentEngagementTechAnxietyandChatGPTTrustinHE.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6188978/v1_covered_d49d053e-38e8-4f89-834e-495c473dad9f.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare no competing interests.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003eBetween a Bot and a Hard Place: Student Engagement, Technology Anxiety and ChatGPT Trust in Higher Education\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"the American College of Greece","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":true,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"ChatGPT trust, educational technology, GenAI, higher education, student engagement, technology anxiety","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6188978/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6188978/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eWhile studies have explored factors influencing ChatGPT’s adoption and impact in Higher Education (HE), they have not yet considered how student engagement, technology anxiety, attitudes toward AI and trust interact—key elements shaping students’ effective usage of AI tools. 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