Pré-Publication, Document De Travail Année : 2025

Optimal Margins in Demands–Resources Fit and Student Engagement

Résumé

A long-standing view in stress and motivation research is that strong resources can offset the strain of high demands—a “buffering” process thought to sustain engagement (students’ dedication, absorption, and vigor in learning) under pressure. Yet this account rarely considers how engagement varies across the full set of demand–resource combinations, whether balanced or imbalanced, and whether both are at high or low levels. Drawing on person–environment fit perspectives, we analyzed three independent datasets spanning middle school to higher education (N = 423, 587, 734) using cubic response surface analysis to examine how a key demand (study workload) and key resources (teacher, peer, and parental support; self-efficacy) jointly shape engagement. Across contexts, engagement was highest when resources outweighed demands, consistent with protective effects. However, when demands and resources were in balance, engagement often peaked at moderate to moderately high intensity, then declined once both were high. This decline is consistent with protective inhibition, a self-regulatory process in which the behavioral system reduces sustained effort to prevent overstrain, even when resources are still available. This pattern affected up to one-fifth of students, challenging the notion that high levels of resources indefinitely counteract high demands. These findings identify intensity thresholds in demand–resource alignment that can limit or boost engagement, highlighting the value of calibrating, not simply increasing, resources in high-demand settings.

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Dates et versions

hal-05252118 , version 1 (12-09-2025)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-05252118 , version 1

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Fernando Núñez-Regueiro, Aline Vansoeterstede, Émilie Cappe, Emilie Boujut, Jacques Juhel, et al.. Optimal Margins in Demands–Resources Fit and Student Engagement. 2025. ⟨hal-05252118⟩
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