More Pain Than Gain: Effort-Reward Imbalance, Burnout, and Withdrawal Intentions Within a University Student Population

Despite the widespread prevalence of psychological distress that affects many higher education students, existing student-stress research remains largely atheoretical. To address this gap, this paper applies Siegrist's (1996) effort-reward imbalance model in a theoretical investigation of student stress. We surveyed Australian university students (N = 2,451) to identify whether discrepancies between efforts expended and rewards obtained influence student-distress outcomes (e.g., withdrawal/departure intentions). More than one-third of the students (37.5%) reported detrimental effort-reward imbalances, and these imbalances positively correlated with burnout and withdrawal intentions. Ultimately, burnout fully mediated the relationship between effort-reward imbalance and withdrawal intentions for both first-year and subsequent-year students. Unexpectedly, student resilience did not moderate these relationships. In light of these results, implications pertaining to the conceptualization and management of student distress and attrition are offered. Educational Impact and Implications Statement This study suggests that more than one-third of university students experience detrimental imbalances between the efforts that they put into their studies and the rewards that they obtain in return. Our results suggest that these imbalances may lead to burnout in students and, as a result, increase their intention to withdraw from university. Ultimately, given that student withdrawal detrimentally affects individuals (e.g., due to reduced salary prospects and health/wellbeing), universities (e.g., with financial losses), and societies as a whole (e.g., from lowered productivity/innovation levels), educational policymakers should address these effort-reward imbalances. Although further research is required to assess the most effective ways to reduce/manage these imbalances, some suggestions noted in this paper include enhancing students' understandings of marking practices, and introducing wellbeing programs to improve coping skills. In sum, policies must be implemented to reduce the number of students who struggle with 'more pain than gain' in their educational trajectories.