"What free time?" A Daily Study of Work Recovery and Regulatory Focus among Student-Employees

Abstract

Student-employees face incredible demands on their time and resources, yet little research exists assessing the degree to which they are able to recover from their demands. The current study aimed to determine the extent to which certain recovery processes contribute to the well-being of student-employees, and whether work can serve as an opportunity to recover from school, and vice versa. Additionally, the importance of regulatory focus in predicting an individual’s engagement in recovery processes and the interaction between recovery processes and regulatory focus in predicting well-being was examined. In order to investigate these questions, data were collected daily for 12 days from 268 undergraduate students who were also employed. Results revealed that participation in relaxation and mastery activities is very important for well-being, with psychological detachment from school appearing to have some positive benefits, and with psychological detachment from work having little value. Prevention focus was negatively related to well-being, but was not related to psychological detachment while promotion focus was somewhat related to engagement in relaxation and detachment. Lastly, prevention focus did not interact with detachment in a consistent manner to influence well-being. Results suggest that detachment does not seem to be as important for student-employees as is engaging in relaxation and mastery processes.