At low ratios of shielding monomer to reactive monomer, there are statistically likely to be more stretches of reactive monomer with no steric effects to prevent them from crosslinking, as well as increased backbone flexibility. At high ratios of shielding monomer to reactive monomer, there are far fewer reactive monomer sequences as well as a straighter backbone due to pendent chains preventing backbone flexing. In summary, only the poly(GMA-co-PEGMA950) compositions achieved this with a high degree of shielding. Gelation was completely inhibited at a 1:1 ratio of reactive to shielding groups. This composition was selected as the most promising candidate for force-activated gelation.