CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Financial stability is arguably the most pivotal standard in human society. We can meet our basic
requirements with money, such as purchasing food, housing, and medical care. It is vital that we
provide for these needs, and when we don’t have the money to do so, both the community’s
overall health and our own welfare suffer significantly (Delagran, 2017). It is very important to
have financial stability, especially in education. It makes sure they have the money to meet their
academic needs throughout their educational career. On the contrary, having an unstable
financial situation can hinder students’ academics. Students can’t take advantage of academic
mobility opportunities. All things considered, having enough money promotes students’
education by giving them access to the tools they need.

In our country, this occurrence is grasped accurately as well. Financial stability has
been the most significant feature that is hindering the studies of college students, especially for
the first-year students who are on their way to venture into the life of college. Not all students
have been given the privilege to have enough money to support their academic performances, so
some of them are forced to have side jobs just to be able to meet the expenses at the universities
or institutions they attend. Moreover, working while studying can really have an impact on one’s
academic performance. It divides one’s time, alters focus, and one will have difficulty balancing
their academic performances.

The struggle to balance the competing demands of study, work and personal
commitments feels overwhelming and they report significant declines in their overall health and
well-being of first year (Richardson, King, Garret, & Wrench, 2012). Moreover, the lack of
incapacity variables like motivation and study time significantly interacts with ability to
influence academic performance. Contrary to popular belief, the amount of time spent studying
or at work had no direct influence on academic performance (Nonis & Hudson, 2006).

The existing literatures above exhibit the declines in the overall health and well- being
of balancing the work and study of the first-year college students, and other related component.
However, most of the studies centered only at the overwhelming commitment and how these
students manage their time in addition to the unclear results that was given to these literatures.
On top of that, there is lack of literature on this topic in our country.

In this study, we assert the primary thesis that most first-year college students’
struggles are crucial in balancing their academic performances. Our research aims to investigate
the diverse difficulties they encounter as working students and what their coping strategies are
to manage the difficulties. Furthermore, we anticipate that this investigation will reveal a clearer
and more significant result than the previous studies have ever given and provide help for future
college students. To achieve this, we will gather data through surveys or by interviewing a
freshman working student we may know, focusing on their struggles and other factors that
hinder their academic performance and what their strategies are to cope with them. After the
data collection, we will conduct statistical analysis to identify the connections and runs in the
data.