Volume 7, Article 6
How Do Working College Students Get More Satisfaction? Exploring Job Crafting and Enrichment
Laurel A. McNall, Matthew Bennett, Geoffrey Becker, Craig Rice, Lauren Soda and Melissa M. Brown
Citation: McNall, L. A., Bennett, M., Becker, G., Rice, C., Soda, L., & Brown, M. M. (2023). How Do Working College Students Get More Satisfaction? Exploring Job Crafting and Enrichment. European Journal of Applied Positive Psychology, 7, 6, 1-15. https://www.nationalwellbeingservice.org/volumes/volume-7-2023/volume-7-article-6/
Processing dates: Submitted 22 October 2022; Resubmitted 31 January 2023; Accepted 17 March 2023; Published 10 November 2023
Abstract
Background/Aims/Objectives: More college students are working in paid employment than ever before, yet little is known about how some students thrive in these circumstances. We investigated two personal resources (optimism, self-efficacy) that could ultimately impact satisfaction via job crafting and work-to-school enrichment (WSE).
Method: We surveyed 308 employed college students from a medium sized Northeastern public college in the United States regarding their experiences of combining work and study.
Results: Using structural equation modeling, we found self-efficacy, but not optimism, was positively related to all three dimensions of crafting. Further, both cognitive and relational crafting (but not task) were positively related to WSE, and WSE was related to outcomes (job satisfaction, school satisfaction). In addition, we found support for a serial multiple mediation model of job crafting and WSE in the relationship between self-efficacy and outcomes, but not for optimism.
Discussion: Self-efficacy seems to be a key resource that helps working college students experience greater levels of satisfaction through two job crafting dimensions and WSE.
Conclusions: This research offers strategies to help employed college students, as well as universities and organizations that support these students.
Keywords: work-school enrichment; job crafting; self-efficacy; optimism
Biographies
Laurel A. McNall, Ph.D. is Professor of Psychology at SUNY Brockport and her research focuses on work-life enrichment, worker well-being, and electronic monitoring. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Canisius College and a PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from University at Albany, SUNY.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9101-9123
Matthew Bennett, M.A. works as an Associate Scientist at SHL. His research has focused on work-school balance for college students. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Psychology from SUNY Brockport and an MA in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from the University at Albany.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9932-4918
Geoffrey Becker is a graduate student pursuing a Master of Science in School Counseling at Alfred University. His past research interests have included internship best practices, interactions between anxiety and impulsivity, and examining attention check methods. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from SUNY Brockport.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8602-8711
Melissa M. Brown, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at SUNY Brockport. Her current research focuses on dispositional mindfulness and cognitive processes: attention, memory, and time perception. She earned her BS degree in Psychology from the University of Illinois-Champaign\Urbana, followed by a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Indiana University-Bloomington.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8715-5974
Craig Rice is a graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in Industrial/Organizational psychology at Colorado State University. He is involved in research on the benefits of mindfulness on work, post-traumatic growth, and the work-school interface. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Psychology from SUNY Brockport.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8524-9387
Lauren Soda is a graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at Florida Institute of Technology. She has her undergraduate degree in Psychology from SUNY Brockport.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9654-0735