Dissertation
It's about time: exploring college students' employment and time use
University of Iowa
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Iowa
Spring 2022
DOI: 10.17077/etd.006372
Abstract
This study explored students’ time use and focused on the relationship between student employment and other activities. It considered time use from two competing ideas of zero-sum and resource expansion. A zero-sum perspective assumes an inherent trade-off between time spent working and available time for other activities. A resource expansion model suggests that an activity such as student employment may not reduce time use in all other areas and may create opportunities to participate in more activities under certain conditions.This study used the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) survey data with an analytic sample of 83,784 participants at 18 universities. Average time use and participation in a host of activities were calculated and then compared. The analyses explored differences between working and nonworking students across time intervals for both on- and off-campus employment; they also compared students who did not work with those who worked different amounts of time per week. Ordinary least squares (OLS) multiple linear regression and logistic regression were used to examine these relationships.
The results of this study demonstrate significant relationships between work and most other uses of time. Although working students devote less time than their nonworking peers in some activities (e.g., studying, media consumption), they reported spending more time in other activities (e.g., partying, community service). Results also suggest that on-campus employment and fewer hours worked had fewer adverse relationships with other activities such as participating in student clubs. An implication of this study is the importance of staff and faculty to consider the role work plays in students’ schedules.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- It's about time: exploring college students' employment and time use
- Creators
- Patrick Dorsey Rossmann
- Contributors
- Nicholas A Bowman (Advisor)Katharine M Broton (Advisor)Cassie L Barnhardt (Committee Member)Carol A Coohey (Committee Member)Brian P An (Committee Member)
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Iowa
- Degree in
- Educational Policy and Leadership Studies
- Date degree season
- Spring 2022
- DOI
- 10.17077/etd.006372
- Publisher
- University of Iowa
- Number of pages
- xii, 125 pages
- Copyright
- Copyright 2022 Patrick Dorsey Rossmann
- Language
- English
- Description illustrations
- tables
- Description bibliographic
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 100-112).
- Public Abstract (ETD)
- This study explored students’ time use and focused on the relationship between student employment and other activities. It considered time use from two competing ideas of zero-sum and resource expansion. From a zero-sum perspective, there is an inherent trade-off between time spent working and available time for other activities. However, a resource expansion model suggests that an activity such as student employment may not reduce time use in all other areas and create opportunities to participate in more activities under certain conditions. This study used data from 83,784 undergraduates who completed the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) survey in 2016. Ordinary least squares regression and logistic regression analyses were used to examine relationships between the amount of time spent working on- and off-campus as predictors of students’ engagement in various other activities. The findings from this study found clear differences in time use between working and nonworking students. Although working students devote less time than their nonworking peers in some activities (e.g., studying, media consumption), they reported spending more time in other activities (e.g., partying, community service). Results also suggest that on-campus employment and more modest hours worked had fewer adverse relationships with engagement in other activities such as participating in student clubs. An implication of this study is the importance of staff and faculty to consider the role work plays in students’ schedules. Additionally, as employers, institutions can create more favorable conditions to support working students.
- Academic Unit
- Educational Policy and Leadership Studies
- Record Identifier
- 9984271153502771
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