The Effects of Doing Part-Time Jobs on College Student

Academic Performance and Social Life in a Chinese Society

Wang, Hongyu; Kong, Miosi; Shan, Wenjing; Vong, Sou Kuan
Journal of Education and Work, v23 n1 p79-94 Feb 2010
Student employment has been treated as a homogeneous category in studying the
effects of doing part-time jobs on student academic performance or social life. In
the present study, using data collected from a well-known public university in
Macau, we treat student employment as a heterogeneous experience and compare
the relative importance of various characteristics of student employment in
predicting student academic performance and social life. We find that doing part-
time jobs exerts no effect on student academic performance when it is treated as a
homogeneous category. When treated as a heterogeneous experience, we find that
incentives to work have most effects on student academic performance, followed by
whether the jobs provide opportunities for students to develop skills and whether
the jobs are related to their fields of study. Inconsistent with most previous studies,
we find that doing part-time jobs actually enriches students' school life and
increases their social support network as well. We do find that taking part-time jobs
damages students' relationships with their parents.