Part Time Employment Effect on Student's Performance

Part Time Employment Effect on Student's Performance

Introduction

Some researchers (e.g. Steinberg & Suzanne, 1993; Lee & Ju, 2010) claim that part-time work experiences have negative effects on adolescent development, which are mainly study on the effect of their problem behaviors and school disengagement. Other research (Rochford et al, 2009: 601) also have found an inverse relationship between working time and course performance. However, there is little data relating to international students and it is still not clear enough how part-time works affect the students' performance in their academic classes at school. 

Discussion

Many students have part-time jobs during their academic years. Both the positive and negative impacts on students' course performance from their term-time works have presented by many researches. For instance, according to Rochford et al (2009), in the nursing subject, approximately 90% of students engaged in part-time jobs, 47% of them do part-time jobs with the purpose of financing their every day expenses, and almost 25% of students worked in more than one job. However, from these data, the research of Rochford et al found that there was only a slight negative result on students' course performance caused by part-time work types.

Most students indicated that they worked not simply for financial reasons; they liked the independence their job gave them, they generally enjoyed the work, and believed that the experience of part-time work would help them obtain employment in later life. These benefits were perceived to be true more often by females, and by middle and lower achieving students, the latter fact highlighting the importance of a part-time job for students whom may not be as well served by the school system as those who are higher achievers (Craig, 2006).

Except the types of part-time jobs, other factors in term-time jobs which could have an influence on students' academic achievements also have been considered, for example, working hours (Rochford, Connolly, and Drennan, 2009: 601-609). According to Derous & Ryan (2008), in the United States, 80% of students are employed during the school time, with 46% working over 20 hours per week. The result of investigation illustrated that undergraduates' working hours were inversely related to students' study motivation, study attitude, and academic achievement, the worst effects also appear when students worked excessively long hour (Derous & Ryan, 2008:118-131). In addition, similar finding also have been discovered in other researches with more clear working-hour criterion, which show that students who work exceeded the

standard of sixteen hours per week will more likely to have negative outcomes in their academic performance. However, some of the above research only choose the sample from a specific major (e.g. nursing subject in the research of Rochford et al), while others may merely survey in one area and unable to generalize the situation in other places. Though the results from them are valuable for future research in some extent, it did not consider much about the different impacts from students' nationalities and background, also lack of information to gain a general conclude for other specific groups or places, for example, ...