Working Status, Academic Activity, Leisure Time Activity, and BMI Among College Students

Abstract

The proportion of college students who work during the academic year has grown steadily in last few decades, especially to meet the ever-rising fees of academia and costs of living away from home. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to determine whether the working status of college students has any effect on their academic activity, leisure time activities, and BMI. METHODS: All students (N=742) in a required general education Wellness course at a Midwestern university participated in an online survey. For the purpose of this study, 379 male (age 18.72 +/− 1.0 y) and 248 female (age 18.41+/− 0.8 y) first and second year students were included. Survey items included daily minutes spent on homework, daily minutes of TV viewing, daily minutes of sleep, weekly hours of paid work, and weekly frequency of vigorous physical activity (PA). The BMI of all participants was determined from the direct measurements of height and weight. RESULTS: No significant difference was found in the weekly duration of work between the genders (mean 17.02 hr/ wk in male vs. 16.12 hr/ wk in female, p = 0.33), although a greater percent of females worked (51.5% vs. 42.7%, p = 0.03). For males, working status had no effect on homework (p = 0.93), TV viewing (p = 0.87), duration of sleep (p = 0.73), frequency of vigorous PA (p = 0.38), and BMI (p = 0.86). Working female students reported ~10 minutes less time spent on homework (p = 0.36), less sleep duration (p < 0.01), less frequent PA per week (p = 0.04), and higher BMI scores (p = 0.04) compared to their non-working peers. Working status had no effect on time spent on TV viewing for females (p = 0.96). CONCLUSIONS: Working while being a college student is quite common today. The results of the present study show that female students that work are less physically active and have higher BMI scores than non-working female students. Although not significant, working females also spent less time on homework. Males, however, are largely unaffected by working status, apparently adapting better to the time constraints of work, school, and leisure. In the current socio-economic perspective, working while in college seems unavoidable. There may be a critical gender-specific threshold of hours worked per week, in which students can successfully balance all of their daily obligations.