Date of Defense

12-15-2025

Date of Graduation

12-2025

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Jennifer Bott

Second Advisor

Sharlet Rafacz

Abstract

This exploratory study investigates how employed university students perceive key aspects of their job while enrolled in school. Drawing on the core job dimensions of the Job Characteristics Model (JCM), the study focuses on students workers’ perceptions of skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback. It also focuses on their perceptions of work culture, work-life balance, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions. Data were collected using an anonymous online survey consisting of 36 questions of both demographic questions and Likert-scale questions. Responses from 5 participants were analyzed descriptively for each participant.  Composite scores were also created for each dimension across participants as well. Overall, results indicated that students perceived relatively high skill variety and task significance in their jobs, but low feedback. There were also lots of variability in job satisfaction, workplace culture, and turnover intentions, highlighting the independent experiences that each participant had.

These findings imply that student work can provide students with meaningful engagement and skill use for students, employers can still better support their student employees by better recognizing their dual role as workers and students, and providing clearer feedback. These results are more illustrative rather than generalizable due to the small sample size, but provide some insight into student employment dynamics filtered through the JCM and lay groundwork for larger scale future research.

Access Setting

Honors Thesis-Restricted

Download

Share

COinS