Recovery resources mediate between work-study boundary congruence and wellbeing and engagement in tertiary students

ABSTRACT

It is important for individuals to manage the boundaries between their different roles as this affects their personal functioning and wellbeing. Little is known, however, about how students manage their role boundaries between work and study. We tested a work-study boundary congruence model, in which student boundary congruence (i.e. the correspondence between students’ boundary preferences and their boundary constraints) was associated with study engagement and wellbeing, and these associations were mediated by student recovery resources (i.e. work-study detachment and general self-efficacy). Hypotheses were tested using data from 402 tertiary students (mean age 20.1 years) who were working while studying. Higher boundary congruence was related to better wellbeing and more study engagement, and work-study detachment and general self-efficacy fully mediated the associations between congruence and the two outcomes. Meaningful variance was explained in both engagement (33.5%) and wellbeing (29.8%). The study demonstrated that recovery resources can enhance the positive impact of boundary congruence on wellbeing and study engagement. Thus, when considering how to improve outcomes for students who have difficulty maintaining a good balance between work and study, professionals who work with students should consider increasing recovery resources.

KEYWORDS:

• Work-study boundary congruence
• wellbeing
• study engagement
• recovery resources
• work-study detachment
• general self-efficacy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Moong L. Chu

Moong Li is a graduate PhD in Applied Psychology student in the School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia. She holds a Master in Clinical Counselling and a Bachelor in Psychology Honours, and has published three journal articles. Her research focuses on the application of boundary congruence theories to understand how students who work while studying balance their multiple roles to achieve fit between roles and how they manage the consequences of incongruence and implement behaviour change to improve engagement, performance, employability, and well-being. Her interest is on young people and adults with psychological problems in school/university and organisational settings. She also has interest and expertise in scale development, using latent variable analysis.

Peter A. Creed

Peter is a Professor in the School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia. He holds a PhD and a Masters in Applied Psychology, and has authored ~200 referred research outputs, including journal articles, books, and book chapters. His research focuses on the application of goal setting/self-regulation theories to understand how individuals set and adjust goals, respond to goals set by self and others, and how they manage the consequences of goal disruption and implement behaviour change to improve performance and reduce stress. He is particularly interested in career development, both in young people and adults in organisational settings. He is the current Editor of the Australian Journal of Career Development.

Elizabeth G. Conlon

Liz is an Associate Professor in the School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia.  She holds a PhD in Psychology and has authored ~50 referred research outputs, including journal articles and book chapters.  Her research focuses the neuropsychological and psychosocial aspects of awareness. Specifically, how awareness applies to the positive and negative self-regulation of behaviours such as driving and stress management.  She currently teaches advanced research methodology and statistics to graduate Psychology students.