How high-school pressure and autonomy support are linked to dual AI learning pathways: A cross-contextual SEM analysis

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Generative AI tools are rapidly becoming embedded in students' everyday learning, yet students' AI use varies from constructive support to compulsive dependence. Drawing on Self-Determination Theory and the Hook model, this study proposes a dual-pathway framework examining how retrospective reports of high-school learning climate relate to university students’ GenAI-use patterns and perceived AI-supported learning quality through motivational and behavioral relations. Using cross-sectional survey data from university students with different high-school backgrounds and current university contexts (overall N = 508; China-HS group n = 305 and non-China-HS group n = 203; China-Uni n = 193 and Thailand-Uni n = 315), we tested the model using structural equation modeling and multi-group analyses. Results were consistent with a pressure-compulsive pathway: high-school pressure was associated with higher controlled motivation, which was in turn associated with higher compulsive AI use, lower well-being, and lower perceived AI-supported learning quality. In parallel, results supported an autonomy-adaptive pathway: high-school autonomy support and current university autonomy support were associated with higher autonomous motivation and planned trigger readiness, which were associated with more adaptive AI use, higher perceived academic performance and well-being, and higher perceived AI-supported learning quality. The model explained substantial variance in key endogenous outcomes. Scalar-level measurement invariance supported meaningful cross-group comparisons, and multi-group analyses suggested that the overall pattern of associations was broadly similar across the sampled high-school and university groupings, with differences concentrated in specific links. Overall, the findings suggest that motivational climate may be an important correlate of whether GenAI is incorporated into learning in more adaptive versus more reliance-oriented ways within the China, Thailand-linked contexts examined in this study.