Mediating and moderating roles of AI literacy: How it shapes the impacts of psychological resilience on work stress and job burnout among young university teachers in China

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In the current context of China's higher education, work stress is a frequent challenge for young university teachers, often co-occurring with job burnout. This is a significant issue that is associated with both their teaching effectiveness and their career development. The purpose of this study is to explore the mediating roles of AI literacy and psychological resilience in the relationship between work stress and job burnout among young university teachers, as well as how AI literacy moderates the associations among work stress, psychological resilience, and job burnout of these young teachers. A nationwide survey was conducted, involving 411 university teachers. The main findings are as follows: (1) Both AI literacy and psychological resilience play mediating roles in the relationship between work stress and job burnout. When acting as multiple mediating variables, their model fit significantly outperforms the case where they serve as single mediating variables respectively. (2) The study finds that AI literacy moderates the associations between work stress and job burnout, as well as between psychological resilience and job burnout. In essence, the intensity of these relationships varies with the level of AI literacy. (3) The mediating effect of psychological resilience is also associated with AI literacy, suggesting that AI literacy can moderate the way psychological resilience mediates the relationship between work stress and job burnout. These research findings provide practical evidence and recommendations for alleviating job burnout through improvements in AI literacy and psychological resilience among young university teachers.