Parents in higher education: impacts of university learning on the self and the family

The influence of intimate partnerships on nurse student progression: An integrative literature review

“…In common with the previous seven studies on influences on student progression, partner support was also important to coping ability, with five of these ten studies demonstrating strong partner support considerably helped students negotiate the competing time demands of university, household and family responsibilities (Wilson, 1997;Norton et al, 1998;Lo, 2002;O'Brien et al, 2009;Wainwright and Marandet, 2010).…”

“…These changes were seen as threatening to some male partners, contributing to relationship insecurity and uncertainty (Meachin and Webb, 1996;Wilson, 1997;Wainwright and Marandet, 2010). Challenging traditional gender roles by women sometimes led to relationship stress and conflict (Howard, 2002;Kevern and Webb, 2004;Vaccaro and Lovell, 2010;O'Shea and Stone, 2011) with one study reporting married students across a range of undergraduate courses experienced significantly more conflict and relationship distress than the married general population (Meehan and Negy, 2003).…”

“…Increased financial pressures were identified for LSES women, removing the option to free up time to study by reducing working hours (Tones et al, 2009;Vaccaro and Lovell, 2010). Such students were less able to reprioritise time from family duties to study because of lack of accessible and available childcare options and feelings of guilt (Wainwright and Marandet, 2010). These students also received less support from their male partners (Scott et al, 1996).…”

“…Of the resulting ten studies, nine focused on the mature-age student exclusively (Meachin and Webb, 1996;Wilson, 1997;Lauder and Cuthbertson, 1998;Norton et al, 1998;Howard, 2002;Kevern and Webb, 2004;O'Brien et al, 2009;Tones et al, 2009;Wainwright and Marandet, 2010), with the tenth (Lo, 2002), reporting 40% of their sample as mature-age. The majority of the stressors identified for these students were external to the activities and interactions at university, with time demands of family and household responsibilities important to all, and financial stresses reported in the majority (Wilson, 1997;Lauder and Cuthbertson, 1998;Norton et al, 1998;Howard, 2002;Lo, 2002;Tones et al, 2009).…”

Student-parents and higher education: a cross-national comparison

“…This focus is derived, in part, from the literature on gender and employment, which has argued that, to understand the extent to which work and family life can be combined, it is insufficient to concentrate on only policies: organisational cultures are also of central importance in determining whether employees feel entitled to make use of their rights and how policies are actually implemented on the ground (Crompton et al, 2007;das Dores Guerreiro and Pereira, 2007). More specifically, previous studies of student-parents have also highlighted the impact of both structures and attitudinal factors on the experiences of this group of students (Lynch, 2008;Wainwright and Marandet, 2010). …”