Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Academic achievement; Job satisfaction; Role conflict; Academic theses;

Abstract

Among college students enrolled full-time in the U.S., approximately 48% are employed during the academic year, with 30% working more than 20 hours per week (Fox, Connolly, & Snyder, 2005). Working during the academic year may create a burden for college students, resulting in poorer academic performance and an increased time to graduate (Canabal, 1988; Trockel, Barnes, & Egget, 2000). Conversely, employment may enrich a student's education by increasing self-efficacy and shaping their plans for the future (Finch, Shanahan, Mortimer, & Ryu, 1991). In this study, I used the job demands-control (JD-C) model (Karasek, 1979) to make predictions about how characteristics of work may impact the work-school role interface for college students. I examined propositions from the JD-C using a structural conceptualization of job demands. Using moderated regression techniques, I found support for the "active jobs" hypothesis: demands were positively related to work-school conflict (WSC), job control was negatively related to WSC, and control moderated the relationship between job demands and WSC. In essence, demands were unrelated to WSC when students experienced high levels of control at their jobs. Further exploration of the JD-C revealed that skill variety did not significantly moderate the demand-strain relationship. Although this study supports conflict as an outcome for working students, no support was found linking job demands to work-school facilitation (WSF). There was not a significant main effect linking demands to facilitation as predicted by the learning perspective of the JD-C. Neither control nor skill variety moderated the relationship between demands and WSF; however both control and skill variety were positively related to WSF. This study extends research on the JD-C model to previously unstudied outcomes, work-school conflict and work-school facilitation, and the results highlight the importance of considering alternative conceptualizations of job demands within the JD-C framework (de Jonge, Mulder, & Nijhuis, 1999). Increasing levels of job control or skill variety may be an effective strategy for reducing interrole conflicts stemming from work hours.

Year of Submission

2009

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of Psychology

First Advisor

Adam B. Butler

Second Advisor

Michael B. Gasser

Third Advisor

Brenda L. Bass

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

2009

Object Description

1 PDF file (46 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Included in

Psychology Commons

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