The "more is better" fallacy in pre-service teacher training: a positive psychology perspective on the resilience-building process and job satisfaction.

The transition from academic training to practical teaching is a highly demanding phase that is critical to the psychological resilience and long-term well-being of pre-service early childhood educators. While positive psychology emphasizes the interplay between individual agency and contextual support in fostering adaptation, the specific occupational factors associated with pre-service teachers' resilience remain underexplored. Drawing upon the motivational pathway of the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, this study investigates how Person-Organization (P-O) fit (a protective contextual resource) and internship length (a potential systemic risk factor) interact to relate to job satisfaction, specifically through the mediating pathway of teaching self-efficacy (acting as a crucial personal resource). A quantitative cross-sectional design was employed, collecting valid survey data from 497 pre-service early childhood teachers (males 11.07%, females 88.93%) in China. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was utilized to examine the direct, mediation, and moderation effects. The structural path analysis reveals that P-O fit is significantly and positively associated with pre-service teachers' job satisfaction. Furthermore, this relationship is partially mediated by teaching self-efficacy, which serves as a vital personal resource for resilient adaptation. Guided by Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, the study indicates that while P-O fit provides a linear buffering effect against temporal demands, the direct effects of internship length follow a prominent inverted U-shaped non-linear trajectory. The optimal threshold in our sample is estimated at 11.03 weeks, beyond which excessive practicum duration is directly linked to diminished teaching self-efficacy regardless of organizational alignment. By challenging the "more is better" assumption regarding internship duration, this study contributes valuable empirical evidence to the field of positive psychology. The findings highlight that fostering sustainable resilience demands optimized practicum environments, advocating for systemic, strengths-based interventions to protect the human potential of future educators through structurally supported and time-calibrated practicums.