What free time? A daily study of work recovery and well-being among working students

Working students 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 different types of psychological detachment-detachment from work as well as detachment from school-contribute to the well-being of working students, and whether work can serve as an opportunity to recover from school and vice versa. An additional focus of the study was how perceived stress interacts with detachment both from school and from work to impact well-being. To investigate these questions, data were collected daily for 12 days from 268 undergraduate students who were also employed. Results revealed that neither psychological detachment from work nor from school is beneficial, with psychological detachment from work even having a negative relationship with vigor. However, perceived stress due to school did interact with psychological detachment from school, such that detachment had a stronger impact on vigor and fatigue on days when individuals experienced more stress. A key takeaway from this study is the need for future research on psychological detachment for working students to separate detachment from work and detachment from school. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).