Under pressure, still adapting: A job demands-resources model of academic resource depletion and student adaptation in Chinese secondary schools.

In Chinese secondary education, students often face sustained examination pressure, grade comparison, teacher evaluation, and family expectations. Yet similar academic pressure does not lead to the same developmental outcome. Some students experience academic resource depletion, while others maintain behavioral investment and academic adaptation. To explain this difference, this study applies the Job Demands-Resources framework and examines how academic demands are processed through socio-ecological and self-regulatory resources. Using PLS-SEM, fsQCA, and machine learning (K-means clustering), the study shows that academic stress increases academic resource depletion, but it can also activate self-regulatory competence and behavioral investment under supportive conditions. Socio-Ecological Integration strengthens Self-Regulatory Competence, which further supports Behavioral Investment and Academic Adaptation. Configurational and clustering results identify distinct student profiles, showing that high academic pressure does not determine poor adaptation by itself. Students can maintain adaptation when school ecology, self-regulation, and behavioral investment form a resource pathway. This study reframes academic stress as a demand that can produce resource loss and adaptive action, depending on the resources students can access and use.