Artificial Intelligence Literacy and the Responsible Use of Generative AI Among University Students in Peru: The Mediating Role of Self-Regulated Learning and the Moderating Effect of Technostress

León Luyo S.L.; Marquez-Yauri H.Y.; Corrales Otazú C.D.; Apaza Miranda S.J.; Arévalo-Aranda C.P.; Flores Castillo M.M.; Orejuela Guerrero L.A.; Guzmán Valle C.A.; Arbulú Ballesteros M.A.; Paredes Morales A.E. · European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education (2026) · DOI: 10.3390/ejihpe16090143

Resumen

University students’ adoption of generative artificial intelligence has become nearly universal, yet institutional guidance has not kept pace, leaving responsible use dependent on students’ own self-regulation. Drawing on social cognitive theory, this study examined whether self-regulated learning accounts for the association between AI literacy and self-reported responsible use of generative AI, and how technostress relates to that association. A cross-sectional survey of 820 Peruvian undergraduates from public and private universities was analyzed using covariance-based structural equation modeling; a two-stage moderated mediation model with latent interactions was estimated using latent moderated structural equations. Measurement invariance held across gender and university type, and the available diagnostics did not indicate a dominant common-method factor. AI literacy predicted self-regulated learning (β = 0.626) and responsible use (β = 0.243), and self-regulated learning predicted responsible use (β = 0.445). The indirect effect was significant, β = 0.278, 95% CI [0.226, 0.337], accounting for 53.4% of the total effect. Technostress showed no significant moderation of the first stage or the direct path, but the second-stage path was significantly weaker at higher levels of technostress (b2 = −0.211, p < 0.001): the conditional indirect effect was 0.344 at low and 0.111 at high technostress and was not statistically distinguishable from zero above the estimated region-of-significance boundary of +1.40 SD. Technostress was not associated with weaker self-regulation, but with a weaker association between self-regulation and its behavioural expression. Because the design is cross-sectional, all estimates are reported as associations.

Instituciones: Universidad Nacional de Trujillo; Universidad Nacional Pedro Ruiz Gallo; Universidad Continental; Universidad Católica de Santa María; Universidad Nacional de Frontera; Universidad César Vallejo