First-Year Undergraduate Employment and Students’ Academic Motivation

Given the importance of academic motivation for student retention and persistence and that most undergraduate students participate in paid employment, this study investigated first-year undergraduate student employment and its relationship with academic motivation. Specifically, this study used the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education (WNS), a longitudinal survey study designed to examine student outcomes, to consider whether paid employment was associated with changes in students’ academic motivation during their first year of college. Results suggested that student employment both on-campus and off-campus was negatively associated with students’ end-of-first-year academic motivation, when controlling for students’ precollege academic motivation and a host of other student background characteristics, institutional characteristics, and college experiences. Implications for higher education faculty and staff are considered, including the importance of emphasizing connections between student employment and academic learning.