Deborah J Kennett, Maureen J Reed, Tasmine R VandenBerg

Abstract

The University Life Experience (ULE) scale was created to determine how students utilize their time between academic (class and preparatory) and non-academic (work, social, leisure, and health) activities. In addition to the ULE, 239 undergraduate students completed inventories assessing academic resourcefulness, academic self-efficacy, and university adaptation and satisfaction, along with single item questions asking about perceived academic and non-academic balance and commitment to completing one’s degree. Results indicated that total number of hours spent per week in various non-academic activities was unrelated to most of the variables including academic hours, whereas the number of hours spent per week in academic activities was positively associated with the psychosocial variables and a unique predictor of academic resourcefulness and cumulative grades. Moreover, academic resourcefulness was observed to moderate the relationship between perceived balance and academic hours, such that the average number of hours spent engaged in academic activities per week was greater for students scoring high in academic resourcefulness regardless of whether they had low or high perceptions of balance, especially compared to those students who scored low in both academic resourcefulness and perceived balance. The results suggest that teaching students requisite academic resourcefulness skills to deal with academic challenges assists them in increasing focus on their academic studies as opposed to non-academic activities.