Cross-time associations among technology acceptance, disability-related attitudes, and social problem-solving in university students with learning disabilities

Technology acceptance may influence whether university students with learning disabilities (LD) use academic and assistive technologies, yet little is known about its psychosocial correlates in non-Western higher education. This two-wave observational panel study examined concurrent and cross-time associations among disability-related attitudes, social problem-solving, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and behavioral intention in 400 Saudi university students with LD assessed 6 weeks apart. Analyses comprised within-wave correlations and regressions, a prospective regression, an observed-variable autoregressive path model, model-based indirect-association and moderation analyses, and separately estimated EBICglasso networks.

The path model yielded CFI = 0.979, TLI = 0.940, SRMR = 0.049, and RMSEA = 0.079. At both waves, perceived ease of use was positively associated with perceived usefulness, and both beliefs were positively associated with behavioral intention. The broader regression models accounted for 47.9% and 49.5% of the variance in behavioral intention at Waves 1 and 2, respectively.

After prior scores were considered, Wave 1 disability-related attitudes were positively associated with Wave 2 perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, but not directly with Wave 2 behavioral intention. Model-based indirect associations with Wave 2 behavioral intention were observed through Wave 2 acceptance beliefs; because the proposed mediators and outcome were measured concurrently, these estimates do not demonstrate temporally ordered mediation. In supplementary exploratory networks, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and behavioral intention showed relatively high descriptive node-strength estimates at both assessments; these estimates were not evaluated for bootstrap-based centrality stability or formal between-wave differences.

Overall, the study provides evidence of cross-time associations between disability-related attitudes and technology-acceptance beliefs in this recruited sample of Saudi university students with formally identified learning disabilities. Department of Special Education, College of Education, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia The authors declare no competing interests. The study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of the College of Education, Umm Al-Qura University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, under protocol number 2601091098 in June 2025.

The study was conducted in accordance with the approved protocol and applicable ethical principles for research involving human participants, including the Declaration of Helsinki. Informed consent was obtained from all participants before study participation. Participation was voluntary, and only students who provided consent were included in the study.

Eligibility was based on formal LD status documented in institutional records maintained by the disability support units of the participating universities. The research team relied on this institutional classification for study eligibility and did not conduct a new diagnostic assessment or independently re-adjudicate participants’ diagnostic documentation. The study did not assess whether diagnostic procedures or documentation requirements were fully standardized across participating institutions.