Harnessing Self-Control and AI: Understanding ChatGPT’s Impact on Academic Wellbeing

The rapid integration of generative AI, particularly ChatGPT, into academic settings has prompted urgent questions regarding its impact on students’ psychological and academic outcomes. Although generative AI holds considerable potential to transform educational practices, its effects on individual traits such as self-control and academic wellbeing remain insufficiently explored. This study addresses this gap through a sequential two-phase design. In the first phase, the ChatGPT Usage Scale was adapted and validated for a Turkish university student population (N = 413). Using confirmatory factor analysis and item response theory, the scale was confirmed as a psychometrically valid and reliable one-factor instrument. In the second phase, a separate sample (N = 449) was used to examine the relationships between ChatGPT usage, self-control, and academic wellbeing through a mediation model. The findings revealed that higher ChatGPT usage was significantly associated with lower levels of both self-control and academic wellbeing. Additionally, mediation analysis demonstrated that self-control partially mediates the negative relationship between ChatGPT usage and academic wellbeing. The study concludes that while generative AI tools are valuable, their integration into education presents a double-edged sword, highlighting the critical need to foster students’ self-regulatory skills to ensure they can harness these tools responsibly without compromising their academic and psychological health.