Generative AI (GenAI) is increasingly used in academic writing, yet its effects on students' writing self-efficacy remain contingent on how assistance is configured. This pilot study investigates how ideation-level, sentence-level, full-process, and no AI support differentially shape undergraduate writers' self-efficacy using a 2 by 2 experimental design with Korean undergraduates completing argumentative writing tasks. Results indicate that AI assistance does not uniformly enhance self-efficacy full AI support produced high but stable self-efficacy alongside signs of reduced ownership, sentence-level AI support led to consistent self-efficacy decline, and ideation-level AI support was associated with both high self-efficacy and positive longitudinal change. These findings suggest that the locus of AI intervention, rather than the amount of assistance, is critical in fostering writing self-efficacy while preserving learner agency.
@article{arxiv.2601.09033,
title = {Exploring the Effects of Generative AI Assistance on Writing Self-Efficacy},
author = {Yejoon Song and Bandi Kim and Yeju Kwon and Sung Park},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.09033},
year = {2026}
}