Working College Students’ Time Pressure and Work-School Conflict: Do Boundary Permeability and Dispositional Mindfulness Matter?

Abstract

Although working college students are experiencing increasing demands on their time, the influence of time pressure on students’ work-school experience has been under-studied in the extant career development literature. Drawing on boundary theory and conservation of resources theory, the present research investigates the degree to which work or school time pressure is associated with working college students’ work-school conflict through work-school boundary permeability. Moreover, this study considers dispositional mindfulness as an individual resource that buffers the relationships above. Using a sample of 222 working college students in a large and diverse public university in the United States, we find support that work and school time pressures predict higher work-school conflict through work-school boundary permeability. Results also suggest that dispositional mindfulness moderates the indirect relationship among school time pressure, school-to-work boundary permeability, and school-to-work conflict. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.