Emotional exhaustion and reduced self-efficacy: The mediating role of deep and surface learning strategies
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Emotional exhaustion and reduced self‑efficacy: The mediating role of deep and surface learning strategies Xiaowen Hu1 · Gillian B. Yeo2
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Integrating conservation of resources theory and students’ approaches to learning, we consider the relationship between emotional exhaustion and self-efficacy as a within- person resource loss process that is explained via deep and surface learning strategies. Using an experiential sampling design, weekly diary data were collected from undergraduate students as they engaged in a learning task (i.e., tutorial participation). With 414 usable responses from 107 students, our results indicated that emotional exhaustion was negatively related to deep learning strategy and positively related to surface learning strategy at the within-person level. In turn, deep learning strategy was positively, whereas surface learning was negatively related to self-efficacy. Mediation analyses indicated that the learning strategies explained the effect of emotional exhaustion on self-efficacy. We contribute to theory by highlighting behavioral strategies as underlying mechanisms that can explain how the depletion of resources (emotional exhaustion) can fuel further resource loss (reduced self-efficacy). We also contribute practically by emphasizing potential points of intervention to break downward spirals of resource loss. Keywords Conservation of resources theory · Deep learning · Surface learning · Emotional exhaustion · Self-efficacy
Introduction There is wide consensus that confidence is a critical personal resource for learning, and this notion is backed by a wealth of research indicating a positive link between self-efficacy and learning outcomes (see Talsma et al. 2018 for a meta analysis). Yet, learning is also a demanding process which can produce stress and leave learners feeling depleted of their resources—as evidenced by a plethora of research demonstrating the prevalence of emotional exhaustion in learning contexts (Schaufeli et al. 2002). Conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll & Shirom 2000), which proposes that we have a limited pool of resources, would suggest that emotional exhaustion is indicative of resource depletion, whereas self-efficacy is indicative of a healthy pool of resources, and thus that these * Xiaowen Hu [email protected] 1
QUT Business School, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane Qld 4001, GPO Box 2434, Brisbane, Australia
UWA Business School, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
2
two resource indicators may not coexist together (i.e. in the moment, one may not feel confident while emotionally exhausted). Indeed, this theory proposes that humans are motivated to obtain and protect our limited resource pool, such that when we experience resource loss, we tend to enter into a defensive mode in order to protect further resource loss, which ironically, can reflect maladaptive strategies that trigger further resource loss (Hobfoll
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