Does Part-Time Job Affect College Students’ Satisfaction and Academic Performance (GPA)? The Case of a Mid-Sized Public University

Abstract

This study examines the effect of work (number of working hours) on college students’ satisfaction and GPA first by grouping the respondents into two categories: working and non-working. The findings show that the average satisfaction and GPA of those students who did not work were found to be slightly higher than those who did work. However, examining the effect of work on satisfaction and GPA by grouping college students as working and non-working may lead to unrealistic conclusions. Hence, we examined the effect of work on satisfaction and GPA by grouping students into 5 categories: those who worked for 0 hours (unemployed), 1- 10 hours, 11-15 hours, 16-20, 21-30, and 31 hours or more. An interesting finding of the current study is that work has positive effect on both satisfaction and GPA, when students did work fewer than 10 hours. Thus, part-job may not always be detrimental to students’ satisfaction. However, when students work for more than 11 hours a week, students’ satisfaction and GPA were found to decline for each additional category of work, although the change is very small. Both theoretical and practical implications of these findings and future research directions are discussed.