Adults Returning to School: The Impact on Family and Work

Abstract

The authors examined the impact of attending a Weekend College (WEC) program on adult students' family, work, and social life. Student participants responded to a 26-item questionnaire and three open-ended questions. Regression analyses of the 566 completed surveys revealed that satisfaction with school and support from family and the work place were predictive of lower levels of stress. Content analyses of responses to open-ended questions showed that expected stress was the result of time constraints but also highlighted the positive aspects of continuing one's education. The study includes suggestions for designing programs to meet the needs of adult students.

The Effects of CPE on Primary Relationships – Is It Worth Exploring?

“…Scheinkman, 1988;Kirby, Biever, Martinez, Gomez, 2004;Gold, 2006). That the lack of time for family, lifestyle modification, communication and finance are main sources of distress, is documented both in the literature (Kirby, et al, 2004;Gold, 2006;Hyun, 2009) and by our students. Finance in particular, posed a problem for a large percentage of respondents.…”

“…Dusselier, Dunn, Wang, Shelley II, & Whaleen, 2005), older students generally report lower stress levels than younger ones (Kirby et al, 2004). Moreover, people in long-term mature relationships appear to be better equipped to deal with study related stress (Scheinkman, 1988).…”

“…Kirby et al, 2004) and this may be a factor that CPE supervisors and centres may need to consider. It may be argued that our emphasis has been on the student rather than the students' relationships.…”

“…Measures recommended to reduce marital distress in students include: a) inviting partners to information sessions which also cover topics such as anticipated problems and advice on coping strategies; b) sponsoring social events for families; c) creating peer-mentoring programmes for students and their spouses; d) creating volunteer support groups; e) providing counselling services (e.g. Brannock, Litten, & Smith, 2000;Kirby et al, 2004;Wormus, 2009). …”

Board # 17 : A Three-Year Study of Adult Undergraduate Engineering Students

“…The large scale survey included six different measures based on previous research [8]: The Appraisal Scale [9], The Stressor Scale [18], the Work-Family-School Role Conflict Scale [19], the Academic Motivation Scale [20], and multiple questions included from the semistructured and design protocol phases; these questions were devised to measure how the adult learner identifies as engineer (e.g., do you, family members or peers see you as an engineering person).…”