Abstract
Extended school hours and a high academic workload have been causes of distress affecting students' well-being, which subsequently contribute to fatigue and reduced engagement. Guided by Park’s Meaning-Making Model, this study examined the relationships among extended school hours, stress, academic engagement, and meaning in life among students. A mixed-methods explanatory sequential design was employed, combining surveys and thematic analysis. Data were collected from 575 students. Quantitative results indicated high levels of academic stress, low academic engagement, and a strong presence of meaning-making in students' experiences. While stress directly reduced engagement, it simultaneously impacted meaning-making processes that partially counterbalanced its negative effects, fostering engagement and reflecting a post-traumatic growth-like response. Moreover, these findings highlighted situational contributors to stress, including extended school hours, inflexible schedules, and inadequate rest, which exacerbated fatigue and diminished engagement. These results suggest that schools should foster an environment that encourages meaningful learning opportunities through policies that allow flexible scheduling, sufficient rest, and institutional support. Such measures may help reduce stress-related disengagement while harnessing the adaptive potential of stress to promote personal and professional development. Furthermore, these findings highlight the importance of implementing evidence-based strategies such as revised timetables, wellness breaks, workload management, and counseling services to maintain student well-being and engagement.