Teacher Support Matters: The Effect of Self-Control Demands on Safety Behavior of Vocational High School Students in China

The safety behavior of vocational school students is worth noting. The current study is aimed to examine the effect of self-control demands on safety behavior. Drawing on the Self-Control Resource Model, we predict that self-control demands have a negative effect on safety behavior through ego depletion and perceived teacher support moderates the link among self-control demands, ego depletion, and safety behavior. A two-wave survey was conducted and 285 vocational students participated in our study. Mediation and moderated mediation modeling analyses were carried out. Results showed that ego depletion fully mediated the link between self-control demands and safety behavior. Moreover, perceived teacher support moderated the relationship between self-control demands, ego depletion and safety behavior; for students who perceived high levels of teacher support, the negative effect of self-control demands on safety behavior via ego depletion was insignificant, while for students who perceived low levels of teacher support, their negative effect was significant. The present study clarifies the effects of self-control demands on safety behavior through the resource depletion process and highlights the importance of teacher support in buffering the negative effect of self-control demands on workplace safety. Enhancing safety management, engaging in a resource recovery activity, and providing teacher support training are effective ways to maintain high levels of workplace safety.