When Rest Feels Like a Burden: Effort- and Responsibility-Oriented Academic Beliefs, Academic Uncontrollability Beliefs, and Rest Intolerance Among College Students in Eastern China

Rest intolerance refers to difficulty accepting rest, manifested in negative emotions, persistent task-related thinking, and social comparison. Although its psychological correlates have received increasing attention, how distinct academic outcome appraisals relate to rest intolerance beyond study engagement remains unclear. Drawing on an appraisal-based perspective, this study examined the associations of effort- and responsibility-oriented academic beliefs, academic uncontrollability beliefs, and study engagement with rest intolerance among 3509 full-time college students from ten higher education institutions in eastern China. Covariate-adjusted latent structural equation modeling showed acceptable model fit (CFI = 0.945, RMSEA = 0.034) and explained 19.5% of the variance in rest intolerance. Academic uncontrollability showed the strongest positive association (β = 0.359, p < 0.001), followed by effort- and responsibility-oriented beliefs (β = 0.172, p < 0.001). Study engagement was not significantly associated with rest intolerance (β = 0.035, p = 0.274). These findings suggest that rest may be appraised as an unmet responsibility or a risk amid uncertain academic outcomes, advancing an appraisal-based understanding of rest intolerance and informing differentiated approaches to student well-being and recovery support.