College Students’ Effort-reward Imbalance And Its Effects And Mechanism On Internalizing And Externalizing Problems Behaviors

As one of the main theoretical models of stress,the effort-reward imbalance model(ERI model)is widely applied in the field of occupational health research after it was first proposed by Siegrist in 1996.In recent years,with the continuous deepening of research on ERI model,it has become the main theoretical basis for stress research in other social fields under the guidance of its core ideas.Researchers in different fields have successfully transferred,expanded and applied ERI model to the fields of education,family and military.Relatively speaking,the application of ERI model in the field of education research is a relatively advanced subject,which at still in the stage of exploration.Based on a review and analysis of the existing literature,this study conduct a deductive reasoning on ERI model,and investigate the current situation,development trend and interaction of university students’ effort-reward imbalance through cross-sectional study and longitudinal tracking study.In addition,based on Scarcity Theory,Ecological Systems Theory,Conservation of Resources Theory and Use and Gratification Theory,combining with the existing research results,a hypothesis model of the influence of effort-reward imbalance on internalizing and externalizing problems behaviors is established.This model assumes that the imbalance of effort-reward would induce individuals to form negative cognitive thinking(ruminative thinking),which would eventually lead to the emergence of internalizing and externalizing problems behaviors.At the same time,the moderating variable of development resources mainly includes social support and self-esteem is introduced to investigate how different types of them play a role in this process.Is it a "timely help" or "a drop in the bucket" ?In order to verify the model,the empirical research is carried out with questionnaires and the following conclusions were obtained:1.College students are generally at an above average level in terms of their effort,reward and over-commitment in their studies.In terms of the effort-reward imbalance rate(ERR),the score is slightly lower than the critical value 1(0.96±0.26),indicating that college students are generally in a favorable balance state in terms of academic ERR,but there are also a small number of them(about one-third)in a negative state of ERR(ERR > 1).2.361 college students were followed for three times to investigate the development trajectories and interaction of various elements of the effort-reward imbalance.The results showed that there were significant individual differences among the initial levels of the three measurements.College students’ sense of effort,reward and effort-reward imbalance in academic work is relatively stable,and over-commitment shows a linear growth trend.In addition,the effort and reward at T1 can significantly and positively predict the over-commitment at T2,and the over-commitment at T2 can significantly and positively predict the effort and reward at T3,but there is no significant mutual prediction between the effort and reward in the three measurements.3.High effort,low reward,high effort-reward imbalance rate are risk factors,which can induce individuals to produce negative emotions,like anxiety and depression,and mobile phone addiction,which verifies the external hypothesis of ERI model.Additionally,college students in the high effort-reward imbalance group(ERR > 1)scored higher in anxiety,depression,and mobile phone addiction compared to those in the non-imbalance group(ERR ≤ 1).Over-commitment has a significant positive effect on anxiety,and a significant negative effect on mobile phone addiction,but not a significant effect on depression.This result partially verifies the internal hypothesis of ERI model.Over-commitment can not regulate the relationship between effort-reward imbalance rate and anxiety/depression,but can regulate the relationship between effort-reward imbalance rate and mobile phone addiction behavior.High over-commitment can alleviate the negative impact of the effort-reward imbalance rate on college students’ mobile phone addiction,so the interaction hypothesis of ERI model has not been verified in this study.4.High effort,low reward,high effort-reward imbalance rate can further lead to the emergence of individual internalizing and externalizing problems behaviors by inducing negative cognitive style(rumination thinking),and there are significant differences between groups in this mediation model.In general,the effect of effort on anxiety and depression,reward/effort-reward imbalance on rumination thinking were more significant in female group,while the effect of rumination thinking on depression was more significant in male group.The influence of the imbalance of effort/ effort-reward imbalance rate on mobile phone addiction was only found in the only child group.The effect of reward on rumination thinking/ mobile phone addiction was more significant in rural college students.5.High effort and low reward can not only directly induce the occurrence of behavioral adjustment problems(mobile phone addiction)in college students,but also indirectly induce the occurrence of mobile phone addiction through the separate mediating effects of cognition(rumination)and emotion(depression)and the chain mediating effects of both.6.Different types of development assets(social support and self-esteem)have a moderating effect on the direct and indirect paths(including the first and second half of the mediation model)of the influence of high effort,low reward and high effort-reward imbalance rate on the internalizing and externalizing problems behaviors of college students,and there are two different moderating modes of this moderating effect: the stress-buffering model and the general benefits model.The research conclusion suggests that we should not overstate the protective effects of external environmental resources(social support)and internal psychological resources(self-esteem)after experiencing negative life events(effort-reward imbalance).Moreover,we should start from adjusting the perception of pressure(effort-reward imbalance)and negative cognitive style(rumination thinking).Joint effort is an important way to improve and prevent the internalizing and externalizing problems behaviors of college students.The conclusion of this study supports and expands the application of ERI model in higher education environment.According to the conclusion of the study,in order to alleviate the negative impact of the effort-reward imbalance on adverse psycho-social adjustment of college students,and prevent the occurrence of the problem behavior of college students’ internalization and externalization,some relevant educational suggestions should be put forward for enriching the extracurricular activities of college students,expanding the ways of college students’ educational management,innovating the methods of college students’ educational management and focusing on the positive psychological resources of college students.