Technostress During COVID-19: Action Regulation Hindrances and the Mediating Role of Basic Human Needs among Psychology Students

The COVID-19 pandemic led to an abrupt change from in-person to online teaching in higher education, resulting in increased use of information and communication technology (ICT) and students’ stress and uncertainty. Integrating theories of human motivation, stress, and humane work design, we investigated whether different types of action regulation hindrances (ARH) pertaining to human (ICT competence deficits), technology (technical problems), interaction (coordination difficulties), and task aspects (work overload) related to technostress (H1). Furthermore, we examined if this relationship was mediated by satisfaction of the basic human needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness (H2). Our analysis of causes and mechanisms of technostress is based on cross-sectional survey data (self-report) from 205 psychology students attending an organizational psychology class that was switched from an in-person to an online format due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Structural equation modeling revealed that different types of ARH (i.e., ICT competence deficits, technical problems, coordination difficulties, work overload) positively predicted technostress (β  =  .17 to β  =  .42, p <.05). The effects were (partially) mediated by satisfaction of the need for autonomy (β  =  .11 to β  =  .15, p <.05), for all ARH except technical problems (β  =  .01, p  =  .86). We discuss implications for online course planning, technostress prevention as well as potential interventions beyond pandemic times.