title: Work-study boundary management in university students: The impact of future-self, role salience, and boundary work
Creators: name: Eastgate, Lindsay
Publisher: name: Griffith University
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: university students
subject: working while studying
subject: work
subject: study
subject: academic progress
subject: boundary management theory
subject: work-study balance

description: Recent research suggests that many university students struggle to complete their degrees, with students reporting that working while studying contributes substantially to this struggle. Managing the two competing roles of work and study can affect a student’s academic progress, subsequent career success, and wellbeing. To date, however, little research has examined how students manage the boundaries between these roles. The research presented in this PhD addresses how students manage their work and study roles by examining how identity concepts influence their decisions to implement boundary management strategies and testing outcomes associated with these strategies. Although identity is central to boundary management theory, few studies have investigated how it relates to the management of role boundaries. Thus, this PhD contributes by extending both the boundary management and identity literature. This PhD comprises three studies that are presented in journal manuscript format. Study 1 is a scoping review that reports how boundary management theory has been applied to university students. Using a systematic process, 9 databases and grey literature were used to identify potentially relevant studies: 12 met the inclusion criteria. The results indicated that a range of boundary management constructs had been examined in university student samples, but areas were identified where further research was required; specifically, the need for consistency in the measures used, measuring the strategies students enact, and investigating how student identity relates to boundary management. Results also confirmed that boundary management was related to important student outcomes, such as academic performance and wellbeing. Study 2 built on the scoping review results and used a mixed-methods approach to investigate how identity, specifically future-self, related to boundary management in university students. Interview and questionnaire data from 20 working students (15 women, 5 men; aged 18 to 28 years) were integrated and analysed. The results indicated that students thought about their future-selves often and this was linked to how they managed their current roles and used boundary management strategies. The main strategies cited were the prioritisation of their student role, structuring roles, and making sacrifices in other areas of their life to work towards their future goals. A future-self focus also provided students with additional motivation to engage in their student role, even when faced with challenging academic situations. Study 2 contributed to the boundary management and identity literature by providing evidence that the future-self assisted students with management of their roles. Study 3 built on Studies 1 and 2 by testing a theoretically-derived model, in which identity (student role salience and future-self) related to academic satisfaction via temporal and communicative boundary management strategies and perceived work-study balance. Participants were 266 university working students (MAge = 20.07 years, SD = 2.63; 74% women). The cross-sectional model accounted for 41% of the variance in academic satisfaction. Student role salience and future-self were related to academic satisfaction, both directly and indirectly via the mechanisms of engaging in boundary management strategies, which were related, in turn, with better work-study balance. Study 3 provided the first known empirical evidence that current and future identity were related to greater engagement in boundary management strategies and through these to better role balance and satisfaction. Thus, this PhD demonstrated that student identity is an important construct to consider when examining boundary management in university students, as it was shown to assist students with the management of their role boundaries, and that, in turn, related to better student outcomes. This provides new insights that can be used by academic advisors and education providers. Thus, if education providers assist students to tap into their identity and implement boundary strategies to realise that identity, they can support them to manage the challenges associated with working while studying.