{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T15:04:23Z","timestamp":1790175863834,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790121600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>As generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) becomes increasingly integrated into graduate students\u2019 academic research, the relationships between GenAI dependence and research creativity have attracted growing scholarly attention. This study distinguishes task-oriented functional dependence from deeper psychological existential dependence and examines their associations with research creativity to examine their associations with research creativity, as well as the potential mediating roles of critical thinking and human\u2013AI collaboration quality.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Questionnaire data were collected from 1,157 graduate students recruited through online convenience sampling. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine the overall structural framework linking GenAI dependence, critical thinking, human\u2013AI collaboration quality, and research creativity. PROCESS Model 6 with 5,000 bootstrap resamples was subsequently used to examine and compare the indirect pathways associated with functional and existential dependence while controlling for demographic variables.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The results indicated that: (1) Functional dependence and existential dependence were both positively associated with research creativity, with the total association for functional dependence (\u03b2 = 0.457) being substantially stronger than that for existential dependence (\u03b2 = 0.147); (2) critical thinking was significantly associated with the relationship between GenAI dependence and research creativity; (3) human-AI collaboration quality was also significantly associated with research creativity; (4) critical thinking and human-AI collaboration quality jointly constituted a significant serial mediation pathway linking GenAI dependence and research creativity.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>These findings contribute to the literature on GenAI use and graduate education by highlighting the differentiated associations of functional and existential dependence with research creativity. The findings also suggest that critical thinking and high-quality human\u2013AI collaboration may be important factors associated with graduate students\u2019 self-reported research creativity. Given the cross-sectional design of the study, the findings should be interpreted as associative rather than causal.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1896963","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T14:15:05Z","timestamp":1790172905000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["GenAI dependence and graduate students\u2019 research creativity: the roles of critical thinking and human\u2013AI collaboration quality"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Shi","family":"Yin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Law, Chongqing University","place":["Chongqing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ruqiao","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Law, Chongqing University","place":["Chongqing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xuejun","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Education, Xiamen University","place":["Xiamen, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Renjie","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Doctoral School of Education, University of P\u00e9cs","place":["P\u00e9cs, Hungary"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"100381","DOI":"10.1016\/j.caeai.2025.100381","article-title":"The mediating role of academic stress, critical thinking and performance expectations in the influence of academic self-efficacy on AI dependence: Case study in college students.","volume":"8","author":"Acosta-Enriquez","year":"2025","journal-title":"Comp. 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