Regan Sweeney, Department of Organizational Sciences and Communication, The George Washington University; Yisheng Peng, Ph.D., Department of Organizational Sciences and Communication, The George Washington University; Elizabeth Arenare, B.S., Department of Organizational Sciences and Communication, The George Washington University.
Purpose/Objectives
The current study aims to examine student workers? financial stress in relation to their compliance with CDC-recommended prevention behaviors through risk perception. Based on the previous literature (Mani et al., 2013; Mullainathan & Shafir, 2014) and recent work (Sinclair et al., 2021), we proposed that student workers’ financial stress would be positively related to their risk perception (i.e., perceived COVID-19 related dangers), which in turn will be positively related to their compliance with CDC-recommended prevention behaviors. Work-school conflict would weaken the effect of financial stress on student workers? risk perception and its indirect effect on their compliance with CDC-recommended prevention behaviors.
Background
Although student workers accounted for many of the frontline workers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, limited research has been done to examine factors that influence their enactment of COVID-19 safety behaviors. Because financial need is why many students choose to work (Butler, 2007), it is necessary to investigate how student workers? financial stress may influence their enactment of COVID-19 safety behaviors. Recent research suggests that individuals’ financial or economic situations constrain their enactment of COVID-19 safety behavior, though the underlying mechanism has not been tested yet (Probst et al., 2020). A different argument suggests that difficult financial or economic situations may also promote COVID-19 safety behaviors via risk perception (Sinclair et al., 2021). The present study aims to first examine the indirect effect of student workers’ financial stress on their enactment of COVID-19 behavior via risk perception. Since fulfilling demands from school and work domains is challenging, the present study looks at student workers’ experiences of work-school conflict during the pandemic. These results can enrich the theoretical explanations regarding the effect of financial stress on safety-related behaviors and can inform organizational practices aiming to promote student workers’ health.
Methods
A cross-sectional survey was conducted among a group of undergraduate working students from mid-March to late April in 2021. The survey included a 4-item financial stress scale (Prawitz et al., 2006), a 6-item measure of perceived COVID-19 related dangers (Taylor et al., 2020), a 7-item measure on COVID-19 Guidance Compliance (Probst et al., 2020), and a 5-item work-school conflict scale (Markel & Frone, 1998).
The sample consisted of 182 students who are employed during the study period, with an average age of 22.83 years (SD = 5.35), an average credit of 13.40 (SD = 4.31), and an average job tenure of 1.47 years (SD =1.76). There were 133 females (73.1%). There were 118 undergraduate students (75.6%), and 38 graduate students (24.4%). Most of the sample was white (53.8%), taking courses online at the time of the survey (73.6%), and working in paid positions (79.7%).
Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted via Mplus 7.1 (Muth?n & Muth?n, 2012). The SPSS macro (model 4 and 7; Hayes, 2013) along with the Preacher-Hayes bootstrapping script (N = 5,000) was used to test the mediation model.
Findings
Student workers’ financial stress was positively related to their risk perception of COVID-19 (B = .19, SE=.05, p <.01). The risk perception of COVID-19 significantly mediated the relationship between student workers’ financial stress and their compliance with CDC-recommended prevention behaviors (effect =.02, 95%CI=.01~.04). Work-school conflict significantly moderated the effect of financial stress on student workers’ risk perception (B = -.15, SE=.07, p <.05) such that the relationship between financial stress and risk perception of COVID-19 was only significant among those with low levels of work-school conflict (at 1SD below the mean: B = .32, SE=.09, p <.01; at 1SD above the mean: B = .06, SE=.10, p =.55). Furthermore, the indirect effects of financial stress on compliance with CDC-recommended prevention behaviors was also only significant among those with low levels of work-school conflict (at 1SD below the mean: B = .05, 95%CI=.01~.10; at 1SD above the mean: B = .01, 95%CI=.-.02~.04).
Discussion
Our findings suggest that more attention might be allocated to student workers’ risk perception of COVID-19 in order to promote their compliance with CDC-recommended prevention behaviors. Employers and university administrators may also consider carefully adjusting policies and communications with student workers to help them develop appropriate perceptions of COVID-19 related risks and motivate them to enact COVID-19 related safety behaviors accordingly. Our findings further highlight that employers and university administrators should be aware that high levels of work-school conflict experiences may distort financially vulnerable student workers? risk perception of COVID-19, lowering their safety behaviors. To help students manage both work and school demands, universities may consider providing individually tailored school support services (Hammer et al., 1998) during unexpected crises.
Conclusions
The present research not only revealed the indirect effect of financial stress on student workers’ COVID-19 safety behaviors via risk perception of COVID-19, but also detected the harmful role of work-school conflict in lowering student workers’ risk perception in response to financial stress.