Who benefits from GenAI, why, and how? Pre-service teachers’ profiles of attitudes toward GenAI use and their links to technostress, coping, and outcomes

As generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) reshapes the educational landscape, understanding pre-service teachers’ multifaceted attitudes toward its use is critical. Grounded in the transactional theory of stress and coping, this study aims to identify distinct profiles of pre-service teachers’ cognitive and affective attitudes toward GenAI use, investigate how technostress predicts profile membership, and examine differences in coping strategies, GenAI-enabled productivity and innovation, and teaching commitment across these profiles. Using data from 1895 pre-service teachers in China, we identified three profiles: Cautious Optimists , Ambivalent Adopters , and Highly Aroused Complex Adopters . Higher levels of techno-overload and techno-insecurity were positively associated with membership in the Highly Aroused Complex Adopters profile, whereas techno-complexity and techno-uncertainty were more strongly linked to membership in the Cautious Optimists profile. Regarding outcomes, Highly Aroused Complex Adopters reported the highest levels of both approach- and avoidance-oriented coping, as well as the highest GenAI-enabled productivity, innovation, and teaching commitment. Cautious Optimists exhibited the lowest levels of avoidance-oriented coping alongside moderate GenAI-enabled productivity, innovation, and teaching commitment. Conversely, Ambivalent Adopters reported moderate avoidance-oriented coping but the lowest levels of approach-oriented coping, GenAI-enabled performance, and commitment. These findings underscore the necessity of differentiated teacher education that moves beyond a “one-size-fits-all” approach to training to help pre-service teachers harness the potential of GenAI for sustainable professional growth.