#self-efficacy — Public Fediverse posts

DATE: July 4, 2026 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------

TITLE: How leaning too heavily on artificial intelligence fuels student burnout

URL: https://www.psypost.org/how-leaning-too-heavily-on-artificial-intelligence-fuels-student-burnout/

College students facing heavy workloads are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence tools to manage their stress, but a new study suggests this habit might backfire. Researchers found that relying on artificial intelligence to handle mental tasks is linked to decreased confidence in one’s own abilities, which is associated with heightened academic burnout and anxiety. These findings were published in BMC Psychology.

It is very common for learners to look for external resources when they feel overwhelmed by schoolwork. The practice of moving information or mental processes onto an external tool to reduce mental effort is called cognitive offloading. In educational settings, cognitive offloading happens when students use calculators, search engines, or modern software programs to bypass time-consuming challenges.

While using these tools can lighten an immediate mental load, leaning on them too heavily can cross the line into dependence. Artificial intelligence dependence is fundamentally distinct from simple, everyday use of the technology. It refers to a situation where a student relies on the technology to do their core thinking and problem-solving. This habit reduces the student’s own active mental involvement with the learning material.

Psychological researchers suspected that this extreme reliance could alter how students navigate academic pressure over the course of a semester. They wanted to understand the psychological pathway that takes a learner from feeling stressed to experiencing severe anxiety or complete exhaustion. They focused heavily on how digital tools might alter the way students appraise their own intelligence.

Wenlong Wang, a researcher at the Psychological Counselling Center at Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, led the research team. Wang and colleagues hypothesized that the stress of university life might drive students to seek out artificial intelligence tools as a rapid coping mechanism. They theorized that this reliance might eventually erode a student’s belief in their own competence, a concept psychologists call self-efficacy.

Self-efficacy is central to a student’s motivation, perseverance, and emotional health in higher education. When students continually solve difficult problems by themselves, they build a sense of mastery that acts as a buffer against future stress. If automated systems take over that problem-solving role, students might lose out on those important mastery-building experiences. The researchers wanted to test if this dynamic was actually happening in modern college environments.

To test these ideas, Wang and the research team recruited 1,623 undergraduate students from universities across China. The participants spanned multiple academic disciplines, including social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering. The students completed a series of online questionnaires designed to measure their current academic mindset and their daily study habits.

The surveys assessed how much academic pressure the participants felt and how heavily they relied on artificial intelligence programs. The tools also measured the students’ confidence in their own abilities to conquer tough tasks. Finally, the team evaluated the participants’ levels of academic burnout and general anxiety using established psychological rating scales.

Academic burnout involves feelings of intense emotional exhaustion, a cynical attitude toward school, and a sense of declining personal accomplishment. The anxiety measurement focused on how often participants felt nervous, worried, or on edge during their daily lives. The testing format asked students to rate their agreement with various statements on standardized numerical scales.

The research methodology included statistical controls for variables like gender, grade level, and academic major to ensure accuracy. The team then used a statistical method called mediation analysis to examine the relationships between these different psychological states. This mathematical approach helps researchers determine if an intermediate variable might explain how an initial stressor is linked to a final emotional outcome.

The researchers found that heavy academic demands were directly mathematically associated with higher levels of burnout and anxiety among the students. Beyond this direct link, the analysts also detected a multi-step psychological pathway at work. Higher levels of school stress were linked to higher scores on the artificial intelligence dependence scale.

This higher dependence on technology was then associated with much lower self-efficacy. When the students felt less confident in their personal abilities to tackle challenges, they reported experiencing more daily anxiety and academic burnout. In an environment defined by high pressure, using the software as a cognitive crutch was tied to a distinct drop in self-belief. This loss of self-belief left the students more vulnerable to emotional distress.

The researchers noted that these technological tools provide an immediate sense of relief by producing quick, organized answers. Yet this short-term solution seemingly comes with a long-term psychological cost for the user. Because the students attribute their academic success to the software rather than their own intellect, they miss out on the confidence boost that comes from conquering hard material.

These statistical relationships suggest that artificial intelligence acts as much more than just a neutral study aid or a simple calculator. When it repeatedly takes over the core thinking processes of an overwhelmed student, it can become part of a negative psychological cycle. The initial school pressure drives the dependence, and that extreme dependence strips the student of the mental toughness needed to handle subsequent tests and essays.

The researchers pointed out that a student’s personal confidence remains a major factor in psychological resilience regardless of external help. Increased academic stress might push a learner to seek out digital answers, but a loss of self-efficacy is what actually links that behavior to emotional exhaustion. This observation is highly relevant to modern digital classrooms, where an abundance of external resources often competes with a student’s internal sense of mastery.

Because this study collected data at a single point in time, the results cannot establish a chain of cause and effect. It is completely possible that students who already suffer from low self-efficacy are simply more likely to depend on algorithmic help. A student who doubts their own reading comprehension skills, for example, might be the first to outsource their essay to a software program.

Additionally, the data relied entirely on self-reported surveys instead of observed behavior. This means participants might have altered their answers out of a desire to look favorable to the researchers. The study was also limited to university students in China, meaning the statistical models might not hold true across different educational cultures or age groups.

The research team recommends that future investigations follow students over long periods to see how technology dependence reshapes their mental health year over year. Assessing study populations in other parts of the world would also help reveal how differing cultural expectations might influence these digital study habits. Future studies could also look at how specific subjects, like math versus creative writing, influence the rate of technology adoption.

Ultimately, the study authors advise educators to rethink how these modern computing tools are integrated into the college classroom. The goal is not to strictly ban the software, but to treat it as a supportive scaffold rather than a substitute for deep learning. Teachers could prompt students to critically evaluate the algorithmic outputs and justify their own final answers, which would help maintain their own cognitive engagement.

The study, “When cognitive offloading becomes dependence: how AI dependence mediates the pathway from academic stress to burnout and anxiety,” was authored by Wenlong Wang, Yuhang Wu, Jie Fang, Chong Yang, and Langyi Wen.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/how-leaning-too-heavily-on-artificial-intelligence-fuels-student-burnout/

-------------------------------------------------

Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org

Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot

-------------------------------------------------

#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #AIDependence #CognitiveOffloading #StudentBurnout #SelfEfficacy #AcademicStress #AIInEducation #MentalHealthInStudents #StudyTech #CollegePsychology #DigitalCopingStrategies

DATE: July 4, 2026 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------

TITLE: How leaning too heavily on artificial intelligence fuels student burnout

URL: https://www.psypost.org/how-leaning-too-heavily-on-artificial-intelligence-fuels-student-burnout/

College students facing heavy workloads are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence tools to manage their stress, but a new study suggests this habit might backfire. Researchers found that relying on artificial intelligence to handle mental tasks is linked to decreased confidence in one’s own abilities, which is associated with heightened academic burnout and anxiety. These findings were published in BMC Psychology.

It is very common for learners to look for external resources when they feel overwhelmed by schoolwork. The practice of moving information or mental processes onto an external tool to reduce mental effort is called cognitive offloading. In educational settings, cognitive offloading happens when students use calculators, search engines, or modern software programs to bypass time-consuming challenges.

While using these tools can lighten an immediate mental load, leaning on them too heavily can cross the line into dependence. Artificial intelligence dependence is fundamentally distinct from simple, everyday use of the technology. It refers to a situation where a student relies on the technology to do their core thinking and problem-solving. This habit reduces the student’s own active mental involvement with the learning material.

Psychological researchers suspected that this extreme reliance could alter how students navigate academic pressure over the course of a semester. They wanted to understand the psychological pathway that takes a learner from feeling stressed to experiencing severe anxiety or complete exhaustion. They focused heavily on how digital tools might alter the way students appraise their own intelligence.

Wenlong Wang, a researcher at the Psychological Counselling Center at Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, led the research team. Wang and colleagues hypothesized that the stress of university life might drive students to seek out artificial intelligence tools as a rapid coping mechanism. They theorized that this reliance might eventually erode a student’s belief in their own competence, a concept psychologists call self-efficacy.

Self-efficacy is central to a student’s motivation, perseverance, and emotional health in higher education. When students continually solve difficult problems by themselves, they build a sense of mastery that acts as a buffer against future stress. If automated systems take over that problem-solving role, students might lose out on those important mastery-building experiences. The researchers wanted to test if this dynamic was actually happening in modern college environments.

To test these ideas, Wang and the research team recruited 1,623 undergraduate students from universities across China. The participants spanned multiple academic disciplines, including social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering. The students completed a series of online questionnaires designed to measure their current academic mindset and their daily study habits.

The surveys assessed how much academic pressure the participants felt and how heavily they relied on artificial intelligence programs. The tools also measured the students’ confidence in their own abilities to conquer tough tasks. Finally, the team evaluated the participants’ levels of academic burnout and general anxiety using established psychological rating scales.

Academic burnout involves feelings of intense emotional exhaustion, a cynical attitude toward school, and a sense of declining personal accomplishment. The anxiety measurement focused on how often participants felt nervous, worried, or on edge during their daily lives. The testing format asked students to rate their agreement with various statements on standardized numerical scales.

The research methodology included statistical controls for variables like gender, grade level, and academic major to ensure accuracy. The team then used a statistical method called mediation analysis to examine the relationships between these different psychological states. This mathematical approach helps researchers determine if an intermediate variable might explain how an initial stressor is linked to a final emotional outcome.

The researchers found that heavy academic demands were directly mathematically associated with higher levels of burnout and anxiety among the students. Beyond this direct link, the analysts also detected a multi-step psychological pathway at work. Higher levels of school stress were linked to higher scores on the artificial intelligence dependence scale.

This higher dependence on technology was then associated with much lower self-efficacy. When the students felt less confident in their personal abilities to tackle challenges, they reported experiencing more daily anxiety and academic burnout. In an environment defined by high pressure, using the software as a cognitive crutch was tied to a distinct drop in self-belief. This loss of self-belief left the students more vulnerable to emotional distress.

The researchers noted that these technological tools provide an immediate sense of relief by producing quick, organized answers. Yet this short-term solution seemingly comes with a long-term psychological cost for the user. Because the students attribute their academic success to the software rather than their own intellect, they miss out on the confidence boost that comes from conquering hard material.

These statistical relationships suggest that artificial intelligence acts as much more than just a neutral study aid or a simple calculator. When it repeatedly takes over the core thinking processes of an overwhelmed student, it can become part of a negative psychological cycle. The initial school pressure drives the dependence, and that extreme dependence strips the student of the mental toughness needed to handle subsequent tests and essays.

The researchers pointed out that a student’s personal confidence remains a major factor in psychological resilience regardless of external help. Increased academic stress might push a learner to seek out digital answers, but a loss of self-efficacy is what actually links that behavior to emotional exhaustion. This observation is highly relevant to modern digital classrooms, where an abundance of external resources often competes with a student’s internal sense of mastery.

Because this study collected data at a single point in time, the results cannot establish a chain of cause and effect. It is completely possible that students who already suffer from low self-efficacy are simply more likely to depend on algorithmic help. A student who doubts their own reading comprehension skills, for example, might be the first to outsource their essay to a software program.

Additionally, the data relied entirely on self-reported surveys instead of observed behavior. This means participants might have altered their answers out of a desire to look favorable to the researchers. The study was also limited to university students in China, meaning the statistical models might not hold true across different educational cultures or age groups.

The research team recommends that future investigations follow students over long periods to see how technology dependence reshapes their mental health year over year. Assessing study populations in other parts of the world would also help reveal how differing cultural expectations might influence these digital study habits. Future studies could also look at how specific subjects, like math versus creative writing, influence the rate of technology adoption.

Ultimately, the study authors advise educators to rethink how these modern computing tools are integrated into the college classroom. The goal is not to strictly ban the software, but to treat it as a supportive scaffold rather than a substitute for deep learning. Teachers could prompt students to critically evaluate the algorithmic outputs and justify their own final answers, which would help maintain their own cognitive engagement.

The study, “When cognitive offloading becomes dependence: how AI dependence mediates the pathway from academic stress to burnout and anxiety,” was authored by Wenlong Wang, Yuhang Wu, Jie Fang, Chong Yang, and Langyi Wen.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/how-leaning-too-heavily-on-artificial-intelligence-fuels-student-burnout/

-------------------------------------------------

Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org

Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot

-------------------------------------------------

#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #AIDependence #CognitiveOffloading #StudentBurnout #SelfEfficacy #AcademicStress #AIInEducation #MentalHealthInStudents #StudyTech #CollegePsychology #DigitalCopingStrategies

DATE: June 26, 2026 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------

TITLE: Positive life events shape youth development more than previously thought

URL: https://www.psypost.org/positive-life-events-shape-youth-development-more-than-previously-thought/

A recent study provides evidence that when young people are asked to describe the most important events in their lives, they predominantly focus on positive, everyday milestones rather than major stressors. The research, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, suggests that supporting these positive experiences may play a significant role in promoting youth mental health. The project was a collaboration between the Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development and the Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute at the University of Zurich.

Mental health research focusing on youth has traditionally relied on rigid checklists to track life events. These standard questionnaires typically ask participants to indicate whether they have experienced specific, predefined situations. The questions often center on negative or highly stressful occurrences, such as physical trauma or the loss of a family member.

Because experts design these surveys ahead of time, they rarely capture the spontaneous, lived experiences of young people in their own words. Adolescence and young adulthood are periods defined by significant psychological and emotional development. During these years, individuals navigate major life transitions, such as completing their education, entering the workforce, and moving away from their parents. Identifying which specific experiences young people view as the most meaningful during this time helps experts design better support systems.

Reading and categorizing thousands of written responses requires an immense amount of time and resources. Advances in artificial intelligence and natural language processing provide new ways to solve this problem. Natural language processing is a type of computer technology that can analyze and extract themes from massive amounts of text data. The current research represents one of the first large-scale, long-term studies in the world to use these tools to analyze open-ended responses from young people.

Christina Haag, a first author of the study who is now at the University of Cambridge, noted the utility of this technological approach. “Our analyses show how freely formulated responses from large longitudinal studies can be processed in such a way that they provide a structured picture of young people’s experiences,” Haag says. “This allows their perspectives to remain visible in their own words.”

To gather these perspectives, the authors analyzed data from the Zurich Project on Social Development from Childhood to Adulthood. This project is a large community study tracking a diverse group of individuals in Zurich, Switzerland. The study included 1,442 participants who provided open-ended text responses at various points in time. The participants were surveyed when they were 15, 17, 20, and 24 years old.

At each assessment, participants answered a single, open-ended question about their lives. They were prompted to think back over the past few years and write down the single most important event they had experienced. Over the course of the study, this produced a total of 5,670 unique text descriptions. The researchers also gathered demographic information, including sex, socioeconomic status, and whether the participants had a family background of migration.

To measure mental health, the scientists assessed participants for internalizing symptoms. Internalizing symptoms refer to feelings and behaviors that are directed inward, such as symptoms of anxiety and depression. Participants completed an eight-item questionnaire at each time point to report how often they felt unhappy, fearful, or worried over the past month.

To analyze the vast amount of text data, the scientists used a Python programming tool called BERTopic. This software uses natural language processing to group similar text responses into distinct topics. After the computer model generated initial groupings, the researchers manually reviewed and refined the categories to ensure the content grouped correctly. They also trained a separate computer model to evaluate the emotional tone of each text segment to determine if the event was positive, negative, or neutral.

The authors found that 83.1% of the reported events were categorized as emotionally positive. Most of the events were ordinary, commonly occurring experiences rather than rare or extreme situations. The analysis identified 12 distinct topics that the researchers grouped into five broader categories. Education and career development made up 51.1% of the responses, while social relationships accounted for 19.6%.

Leisure activities and successes made up 12.4% of the responses, mental health and well-being accounted for 11.2%, and other life transitions made up 5.7%. The four specific topics mentioned most frequently were related to school and education, romantic relationships and friendships, mental health changes, and travel or vacations.

David Bürgin, a clinical developmental psychologist at the University of Zurich and first author of the study, highlighted the significance of these findings. “Our results show that youth is not primarily composed of crises,” Bürgin says. “Many young people primarily mention positive developmental steps such as education, relationships and personal achievements.”

This emphasis on positive milestones has practical applications for mental health professionals. Lilly Shanahan, a study co-leader at the University of Zurich, adds: “Support services should therefore not only focus on how to cope with stress. Stable relationships, positive experiences and opportunities to experience self-efficacy are just as important.” Self-efficacy refers to a person’s belief in their own ability to succeed or accomplish goals.

These event topics shifted in noticeable ways as the participants grew older. Mentions of school and friendships were paramount in middle adolescence, but topics related to work, housing, and having children continued to rise steadily into young adulthood. In contrast, reports of sports and going out decreased as the participants aged. These shifts map closely onto expected developmental milestones as teenagers transition into independent adults.

Sociodemographic factors showed some small associations with the types of events reported. For example, women were more likely to report events related to travel, family, loss, and marriage compared to men. Men had higher odds of mentioning sports and vehicles. Participants with a higher socioeconomic status reported more travel events and fewer events related to work, family, or vehicles.

Despite these minor demographic differences, the three most common topics were reported equally across all groups. Education, friendships, and mental health themes did not vary based on sex, income, or migration background. This suggests that the core milestones of young adulthood are widely shared experiences.

The researchers also observed a link between mental health symptoms and the types of events participants recalled. Higher levels of anxiety and depression were associated with an increased likelihood of reporting negative events, stressful life events, conflicts, loss, and personal failures. At the same time, participants with higher internalizing symptoms were less likely to report positive experiences, such as achievements in school, work, or sports. This pattern provides evidence that mood may influence how individuals remember and appraise their past experiences.

There are several limitations to consider when interpreting these findings. First, the researchers do not fully understand the cognitive processes that prompt a person to select one specific event over another. A participant’s mood at the exact time of the survey might heavily influence which memory comes to mind. Additionally, because participants were only asked to name a single event, they may have left out other meaningful experiences.

The study is also limited by its specific geographic and historical context. The data were collected between 2013 and 2022 in an urban area of Switzerland. Some of the reported events were tied to specific moments in time, such as the COVID-19 pandemic or a particular pop music concert. These highly specific occurrences do not necessarily generalize to populations in other areas or time periods.

Another limitation involves participant dropout over the nine-year tracking period. Attrition at later stages of the study was slightly higher among men, youth from lower-income families, and participants with a migration background. This selective dropout may affect how well the findings represent the broader population, as research samples tend to become less diverse over time.

Future research could build on this study by asking participants to list multiple events and rank them by importance. Scientists might also benefit from asking individuals to rate the emotional impact of their own memories, rather than relying on a computer model to assess the tone. Integrating standard checklists with open-text questions could offer a more comprehensive view of youth development. Continuing to use text analysis tools could help professionals identify ways to foster beneficial experiences that improve well-being among adolescents and young adults.

The study, “Personally meaningful life events from adolescence to young adulthood: a longitudinal natural language processing analysis,” was authored by David Bürgin, Christina Haag, Lynn Alison Büeler, Laura Bechtiger, Clarissa Janousch, Elena Feldmann, Denis Ribeaud, Manuel Eisner, Viktor von Wyl, and Lilly Shanahan.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/positive-life-events-shape-youth-development-more-than-previously-thought/

-------------------------------------------------

Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org

Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot

-------------------------------------------------

#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #PositiveLifeEvents #YouthDevelopment #MentalHealthMatters #OpenEndedResponses #NaturalLanguageProcessing #BERTopic #AdolescenceToAdulthood #EducationAndRelationships #SelfEfficacy #PositiveMilestones

DATE: June 26, 2026 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------

TITLE: Positive life events shape youth development more than previously thought

URL: https://www.psypost.org/positive-life-events-shape-youth-development-more-than-previously-thought/

A recent study provides evidence that when young people are asked to describe the most important events in their lives, they predominantly focus on positive, everyday milestones rather than major stressors. The research, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, suggests that supporting these positive experiences may play a significant role in promoting youth mental health. The project was a collaboration between the Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development and the Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute at the University of Zurich.

Mental health research focusing on youth has traditionally relied on rigid checklists to track life events. These standard questionnaires typically ask participants to indicate whether they have experienced specific, predefined situations. The questions often center on negative or highly stressful occurrences, such as physical trauma or the loss of a family member.

Because experts design these surveys ahead of time, they rarely capture the spontaneous, lived experiences of young people in their own words. Adolescence and young adulthood are periods defined by significant psychological and emotional development. During these years, individuals navigate major life transitions, such as completing their education, entering the workforce, and moving away from their parents. Identifying which specific experiences young people view as the most meaningful during this time helps experts design better support systems.

Reading and categorizing thousands of written responses requires an immense amount of time and resources. Advances in artificial intelligence and natural language processing provide new ways to solve this problem. Natural language processing is a type of computer technology that can analyze and extract themes from massive amounts of text data. The current research represents one of the first large-scale, long-term studies in the world to use these tools to analyze open-ended responses from young people.

Christina Haag, a first author of the study who is now at the University of Cambridge, noted the utility of this technological approach. “Our analyses show how freely formulated responses from large longitudinal studies can be processed in such a way that they provide a structured picture of young people’s experiences,” Haag says. “This allows their perspectives to remain visible in their own words.”

To gather these perspectives, the authors analyzed data from the Zurich Project on Social Development from Childhood to Adulthood. This project is a large community study tracking a diverse group of individuals in Zurich, Switzerland. The study included 1,442 participants who provided open-ended text responses at various points in time. The participants were surveyed when they were 15, 17, 20, and 24 years old.

At each assessment, participants answered a single, open-ended question about their lives. They were prompted to think back over the past few years and write down the single most important event they had experienced. Over the course of the study, this produced a total of 5,670 unique text descriptions. The researchers also gathered demographic information, including sex, socioeconomic status, and whether the participants had a family background of migration.

To measure mental health, the scientists assessed participants for internalizing symptoms. Internalizing symptoms refer to feelings and behaviors that are directed inward, such as symptoms of anxiety and depression. Participants completed an eight-item questionnaire at each time point to report how often they felt unhappy, fearful, or worried over the past month.

To analyze the vast amount of text data, the scientists used a Python programming tool called BERTopic. This software uses natural language processing to group similar text responses into distinct topics. After the computer model generated initial groupings, the researchers manually reviewed and refined the categories to ensure the content grouped correctly. They also trained a separate computer model to evaluate the emotional tone of each text segment to determine if the event was positive, negative, or neutral.

The authors found that 83.1% of the reported events were categorized as emotionally positive. Most of the events were ordinary, commonly occurring experiences rather than rare or extreme situations. The analysis identified 12 distinct topics that the researchers grouped into five broader categories. Education and career development made up 51.1% of the responses, while social relationships accounted for 19.6%.

Leisure activities and successes made up 12.4% of the responses, mental health and well-being accounted for 11.2%, and other life transitions made up 5.7%. The four specific topics mentioned most frequently were related to school and education, romantic relationships and friendships, mental health changes, and travel or vacations.

David Bürgin, a clinical developmental psychologist at the University of Zurich and first author of the study, highlighted the significance of these findings. “Our results show that youth is not primarily composed of crises,” Bürgin says. “Many young people primarily mention positive developmental steps such as education, relationships and personal achievements.”

This emphasis on positive milestones has practical applications for mental health professionals. Lilly Shanahan, a study co-leader at the University of Zurich, adds: “Support services should therefore not only focus on how to cope with stress. Stable relationships, positive experiences and opportunities to experience self-efficacy are just as important.” Self-efficacy refers to a person’s belief in their own ability to succeed or accomplish goals.

These event topics shifted in noticeable ways as the participants grew older. Mentions of school and friendships were paramount in middle adolescence, but topics related to work, housing, and having children continued to rise steadily into young adulthood. In contrast, reports of sports and going out decreased as the participants aged. These shifts map closely onto expected developmental milestones as teenagers transition into independent adults.

Sociodemographic factors showed some small associations with the types of events reported. For example, women were more likely to report events related to travel, family, loss, and marriage compared to men. Men had higher odds of mentioning sports and vehicles. Participants with a higher socioeconomic status reported more travel events and fewer events related to work, family, or vehicles.

Despite these minor demographic differences, the three most common topics were reported equally across all groups. Education, friendships, and mental health themes did not vary based on sex, income, or migration background. This suggests that the core milestones of young adulthood are widely shared experiences.

The researchers also observed a link between mental health symptoms and the types of events participants recalled. Higher levels of anxiety and depression were associated with an increased likelihood of reporting negative events, stressful life events, conflicts, loss, and personal failures. At the same time, participants with higher internalizing symptoms were less likely to report positive experiences, such as achievements in school, work, or sports. This pattern provides evidence that mood may influence how individuals remember and appraise their past experiences.

There are several limitations to consider when interpreting these findings. First, the researchers do not fully understand the cognitive processes that prompt a person to select one specific event over another. A participant’s mood at the exact time of the survey might heavily influence which memory comes to mind. Additionally, because participants were only asked to name a single event, they may have left out other meaningful experiences.

The study is also limited by its specific geographic and historical context. The data were collected between 2013 and 2022 in an urban area of Switzerland. Some of the reported events were tied to specific moments in time, such as the COVID-19 pandemic or a particular pop music concert. These highly specific occurrences do not necessarily generalize to populations in other areas or time periods.

Another limitation involves participant dropout over the nine-year tracking period. Attrition at later stages of the study was slightly higher among men, youth from lower-income families, and participants with a migration background. This selective dropout may affect how well the findings represent the broader population, as research samples tend to become less diverse over time.

Future research could build on this study by asking participants to list multiple events and rank them by importance. Scientists might also benefit from asking individuals to rate the emotional impact of their own memories, rather than relying on a computer model to assess the tone. Integrating standard checklists with open-text questions could offer a more comprehensive view of youth development. Continuing to use text analysis tools could help professionals identify ways to foster beneficial experiences that improve well-being among adolescents and young adults.

The study, “Personally meaningful life events from adolescence to young adulthood: a longitudinal natural language processing analysis,” was authored by David Bürgin, Christina Haag, Lynn Alison Büeler, Laura Bechtiger, Clarissa Janousch, Elena Feldmann, Denis Ribeaud, Manuel Eisner, Viktor von Wyl, and Lilly Shanahan.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/positive-life-events-shape-youth-development-more-than-previously-thought/

-------------------------------------------------

Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org

Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot

-------------------------------------------------

#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #PositiveLifeEvents #YouthDevelopment #MentalHealthMatters #OpenEndedResponses #NaturalLanguageProcessing #BERTopic #AdolescenceToAdulthood #EducationAndRelationships #SelfEfficacy #PositiveMilestones

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In case any psychology people are around... Do you happen to know about any studies on manipulating/affecting general self-efficacy?
So far I've found one only, but that seems to be a weirdly low number.

#psychology #SelfEfficacy

In case any psychology people are around... Do you happen to know about any studies on manipulating/affecting general self-efficacy?
So far I've found one only, but that seems to be a weirdly low number.

#psychology #SelfEfficacy

#America #Europe , #Democrats,
Demonstrate your #selfefficacy ,free yourself from #Trump and his #BigTech Bros.
Joy our #digital #independence Action with handing out tips for #UNPLUGTRUMP 👇
https://www.kuketz-blog.de/unplugtrump-free-yourself-digitally-from-trump-and-big-tech/

Enjoy our Video.
Feel free to sing your own version and flood the zone with hits. 🙂
Lyrics and playback: 👇
https://pekrieger.de/unplugtrump/

@kuketz
@ccc
@marcuwekling
#Trump #Faschismus #facism #ice #Minnesota #did #diday #imigration #venzuela #Greenland #denmark #dänemark #fckafd

#America #Europe , #Democrats,
Demonstrate your #selfefficacy ,free yourself from #Trump and his #BigTech Bros.
Joy our #digital #independence Action with handing out tips for #UNPLUGTRUMP 👇
https://www.kuketz-blog.de/unplugtrump-free-yourself-digitally-from-trump-and-big-tech/

Enjoy our Video.
Feel free to sing your own version and flood the zone with hits. 🙂
Lyrics and playback: 👇
https://pekrieger.de/unplugtrump/

@kuketz
@ccc
@marcuwekling
#Trump #Faschismus #facism #ice #Minnesota #did #diday #imigration #venzuela #Greenland #denmark #dänemark #fckafd

How Our Environment and Genes Shape Brain Structure and Mental Health

#Neuroscience #MentalHealth #BrainScience #Genetics #Epigenetics #StressResponse #Psychology #BrainStructure #SelfEfficacy #MindAndBody

https://youtube.com/shorts/xT2gAA4Mu0Q?feature=share

#SelfEfficacy:
A Guide To Understanding And Enhancing It

https://www.spring.org.uk/2025/01/self-efficacy.php

So in retrospection:

Will do it again. 😁

Even though I got pretty wet twice, biking worked well (dry clothes in my backpack for the win :)).

Feeling of #selfefficacy, having cared properly for my #health at the end of this day, was truly awesome. 🥳

Also I got aware again, that it's a huge privilege to live in a country where I can pay "just" the health insurance and then go to the doctors for prevention.

So in retrospection:

Will do it again. 😁

Even though I got pretty wet twice, biking worked well (dry clothes in my backpack for the win :)).

Feeling of #selfefficacy, having cared properly for my #health at the end of this day, was truly awesome. 🥳

Also I got aware again, that it's a huge privilege to live in a country where I can pay "just" the health insurance and then go to the doctors for prevention.

Locus of Control Theory In Psychology: Internal vs External

"Research has shown that people with an internal locus of control tend to be less conforming and obedient (i.e., more independent). Rotter proposes that people with an internal locus of control are better at resisting social pressure to conform or obey, perhaps because they feel responsible for their actions."

https://www.simplypsychology.org/locus-of-control.html

#Psychology #SelfEfficacy #Autonomy

Locus of Control Theory In Psychology: Internal vs External

"Research has shown that people with an internal locus of control tend to be less conforming and obedient (i.e., more independent). Rotter proposes that people with an internal locus of control are better at resisting social pressure to conform or obey, perhaps because they feel responsible for their actions."

https://www.simplypsychology.org/locus-of-control.html

#Psychology #SelfEfficacy #Autonomy

Yes, there WILL be hard times!

Changing #habits IS hard. ☯

#BusinessJournaling can be your private coach and sparring partner. 💪 💎

➡ Read more on #habits #gratitude #brainhacking and #selfefficacy in my current newsletter article series on the Secrets of #BusinessJournaling. 💡

https://businessjournaling.substack.com/p/business-journaling-can-be-your-private

#leadership #professionaldevelopment #mentalhealth #journaling

Yes, there WILL be hard times!

Changing #habits IS hard. ☯

#BusinessJournaling can be your private coach and sparring partner. 💪 💎

➡ Read more on #habits #gratitude #brainhacking and #selfefficacy in my current newsletter article series on the Secrets of #BusinessJournaling. 💡

https://businessjournaling.substack.com/p/business-journaling-can-be-your-private

#leadership #professionaldevelopment #mentalhealth #journaling

Research Lab for Self-efficacy, Performance, & Agency
Self-efficacy encompasses so much. The belief that you can do is the bedrock for everything, the key to agency and at the heart of human endeavour. It makes dreams real. I innaugerated my research Lab for Self-efficacy, Performance, & Agency just before the summer (
https://www.lauraritchie.com/2023/08/23/research-lab-for-self-efficacy-performance-agency/
#AcademicWriting #LifeLearning #YesICan #agency #Bandura #research #selfefficacy

Research Lab for Self-efficacy, Performance, & Agency
Self-efficacy encompasses so much. The belief that you can do is the bedrock for everything, the key to agency and at the heart of human endeavour. It makes dreams real. I innaugerated my research Lab for Self-efficacy, Performance, & Agency just before the summer (
https://www.lauraritchie.com/2023/08/23/research-lab-for-self-efficacy-performance-agency/
#AcademicWriting #LifeLearning #YesICan #agency #Bandura #research #selfefficacy

Die #Bedingung für die #Konstruktion des #Gelingen der #Anwendung von #Selbstwirksamkeit basiert auf einem #Netzwerk aus #soziostrukturell​em #Einfluss.

Das #Hervorbringen #wirksam​er #Handlung ist dabei nicht nur #Reimprägnierung des #Zustand​es von #Gesellschaft auf seine #vermeintlich​en #Träger #Mensch​en, sondern #gemeinsam​e #Autopoiesis, wodurch sich die #Frage nach der #Möglichkeit ihrer #aktiv​en #Verhinderung stellt.

#Operation; #Kontrolle

Albert #Bandura - #SelfEfficacy, #Preface

"Self efficacy … the belief in one's capabilities to achieve a goal or an outcome. Students with a strong sense of efficacy are more likely to challenge themselves with difficult tasks and be intrinsically motivated. These students will put forth a high degree of effort in order to meet their commitments, and attribute failure to things which are in their control, rather than blaming external factors."
#psychology #motivation #SelfEfficacy #education

Self-Efficacy https://flip.it/KqRfQv

Thanks, and exactly @brudibrau ! There were more pressing tasks at hand, but I needed this immediate reward of doing something against this whole mess.
#SelfEfficacy was it called in an article I read recently (can't remember where though). It was in short about "How not to dispair in desperate times".

Come visit the #Methods and #Metrics session at #CHI2023 starting now! A bunch of interesting papers in the pipeline (including one I worked on). If you're into #selfefficacy, #smarthomes and scale dev, give us a visit!

Come visit the #Methods and #Metrics session at #CHI2023 starting now! A bunch of interesting papers in the pipeline (including one I worked on). If you're into #selfefficacy, #smarthomes and scale dev, give us a visit!

You're at #CHI23, a big fan of #SelfEfficacy, love a proper #validation and fear nothing more than #Adhocscales? I figured as much! Definitely visit Nele Borgert's talk in the "Metrics & Methods" session where she will be presenting our (with Larina Hillemann, Luisa Jansen, @maltoesermalte and @ianhussey) paper "Home is Where the Smart is: Development and Validation of the Cybersecurity Self-Efficacy in Smart Homes (CySESH) Scale". I am looking forward to it, so why shouldn't you?

You're at #CHI23, a big fan of #SelfEfficacy, love a proper #validation and fear nothing more than #Adhocscales? I figured as much! Definitely visit Nele Borgert's talk in the "Metrics & Methods" session where she will be presenting our (with Larina Hillemann, Luisa Jansen, @maltoesermalte and @ianhussey) paper "Home is Where the Smart is: Development and Validation of the Cybersecurity Self-Efficacy in Smart Homes (CySESH) Scale". I am looking forward to it, so why shouldn't you?

Getting to do this now for once: We did a new thing! Together with Nele Bordert, Luisa Jansen, Larina Hillemann, @ianhussey and @maltoesermalte we developed a 12 Item measure for #SelfEfficacy in Information Security and got it published at the upcoming #CHI conference! In a neat little thread I will break down, what motivated us to do that, what we did and why we think this matters!

Getting to do this now for once: We did a new thing! Together with Nele Bordert, Luisa Jansen, Larina Hillemann, @ianhussey and @maltoesermalte we developed a 12 Item measure for #SelfEfficacy in Information Security and got it published at the upcoming #CHI conference! In a neat little thread I will break down, what motivated us to do that, what we did and why we think this matters!

#Introduction

I'm a lecturer of Technology education at the University of Limerick. My teaching is primarily in the areas of engineering and robotics.

My research mainly focuses on motivation within STEM learning environments. I do some media writing on technology and the environment.

I'm currently a PI on an EU funded project that aims to support evidence based practice in University STEM environments.

Generally interested in: #motivation #selfefficacy #STEMed #technology #openscience

#Introduction

I'm a lecturer of Technology education at the University of Limerick. My teaching is primarily in the areas of engineering and robotics.

My research mainly focuses on motivation within STEM learning environments. I do some media writing on technology and the environment.

I'm currently a PI on an EU funded project that aims to support evidence based practice in University STEM environments.

Generally interested in: #motivation #selfefficacy #STEMed #technology #openscience