Chapter 1

The Problem and its Background

Introduction

Many people are familiar with the concept of “work-life balance”- the ongoing struggle

to keep a healthy split between times spent on your professional time. For grad students

who work full-time, it’s more accurate to talk about “work-study-life balance.” And that’s a

mouthful; it’s even more of a handful. While it is technically possible to work full-time while

studying full-time, it can be a bit like fighting a two-front war- both areas important and

require constant attention, and ignoring either is something you do at your own peril- and

meanwhile, you can ever forget your obligations on the “home front” either.

Parents work hard to give the best for their children. The government offers programs

and solutions for the benefit and development of the people. And as an individual, students

have responsibility to help themselves and be beneficial to others. Working students are

those individuals who find ways to make things possible for them and to others.

Student’s jobs have become a sort of trend among students around the world, who

want to work while studying. In short, the term that suits this trend is “Earn and Learn” policy.

Other reasons why student jobs are popular among students is they help to cope up with the

constant increase in tuition fees, and a way to afford further educations.

The problem has been developed with the question as to have the corresponding

workloads and required working hours of working students affect their academic

performance. Working in full time while attending school creates time shortages and the

students requires highly developed time management skill in order to handle school and

work.
 The research aims to provide encouragement and motivation to all students

especially those financially distressed to pursue and finish a college degree in order to

become competitive in the future and be able to realize their goals and aspirations. It may

also provide learning’s, experiences and information to other students who are not working.

Background of the Study

This study deals with the Factors Affecting the Academic Performance of Selected

Working Students in Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Santa Rosa Campus. The

problem is what factors that working students affect their academic performance. And one of

the negative effects typically arise because hours spent at work take time away from

studying which may lead to lower grades and less attractive post college opportunities. And

one of the choices to address and act on the problem is to balance work and study to help

them succeed in college. This study serves as the basis to discover other factors to enhance

student’s performance.

There are some obvious advantage to this work approach, from finishing school more

quickly to maintain the current job and the associated income and benefits. Just be aware

that by choosing to study and work full-time, you are essentially signing themselves up for a

few very hectic years. Students should be very clear about the reasons to be a full-time

student and worker. Working full-time while also studying full-time clearly requires a lot of

effort. Putting so much of their mental and physical energy into this uneasy arrangement can

quickly leave that feeling fatigued, stressed, or both. While many grad students and workers

routinely feel tired and stressed by their work, as a full-time student-worker you will likely

encounter stress and fatigue levels well beyond those of most of your colleagues. Perhaps

for the first time in their life, students may find themselves planning and accounting for every

day, from the few hours you can block off for sleep to the 45 minutes of their commute their

lunch break (both may become extra time for studying).

while also progressing in their studies. Students may rely on their job for their own or for

family’s health insurance or students may need the income for full time work to support

themselves and still be able to afford grad school. Maybe students truly enjoy their job and

know that staying involved there is part of their overall life trajectory just their degree is.

Continuing to work full-time while commencing grad school may even have additional

benefits, such as a chance to apply classroom learning in work settings and vice versa.

A part-time job is a form of employment that carries fewer hours per week than a full-

time job. Workers are considered to be part time if they commonly work fewer than 30 or 35

hours per week. There are many reasons for working part time, including the desire to do so,

having one’s hours cut back by an employer and being unable to find a full-time job.

This study will help to determine the Factors Affecting the Academic Performance of

Selected Working Students.

Academic Performance of the working students have attracted increased attention

among the university teachers and students with the aim of knowing and understanding the

reasons, problems and other factors affecting them. This may empower them for lifelong

learning to their journey to success hindered by their busy schedule and always no time to

their study and academic performance.

Determining the concepts of this research the study comes up with different theories.

The theories that could be used are transactional model of stress and coping it is how a

person copes with stressful events.

Stressors are demands made by the internal or external environment that upset

balance, thus affecting physical and psychological well being and requiring action to restore

balance. (Lazarus & Cohen, 1977)

The work is a stressor that upset balance affecting the academic performance.

Actions that may require restoring the balance may require the dropping of other subjects

that they can focus on the others or just enroll the subjects suited to their schedules. Time

management and proper approach on every situation are also helpful.

According to Lazarus & Folkman cognitive-relational theory defines stress as a

particular relationship between the person and the environment that is appraised by the

person as taxing or exceeding his or her resources and endangering his or her well-being.

According to Albert Bandura is well regarded for his Social Cognitive Theory. It is a

learning theory based on the ideas that people learn by watching what others do, and that
human thought processes are central to understanding personality. This theory provides a

framework for understanding, predicting and changing human behavior.

Another theory is the theory of planned behavior and reasoned action (AJ Zen &

Fishbein 1980);

It is a theory that predicts deliberate behavior, because behavior can be deliberate and

planned.

This theory suggests that a parent’s behavior is determined by his/her intention to

perform the behavior and that this intention is in turn, a function of his/her subjective norm.

The best predictor of behavior is intention, intention is the cognitive representation of a

person’s readiness to perform a given behavior, and it is considered to be immediate

antecedent of behavior.
FACTORS AFFECTING THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF THE WORKING
STUDENTS