Time poverty affects college students with jobs and children, especially in certain groups, research shows

Many college students do not have enough time for their studies. This “time poverty,” as we call it, often stems from a lack of access to childcare or the need to work to pay for college and living expenses.

In an effort to understand how much time poverty affects student outcomes, we surveyed more than 41,000 US college students. We found that the more time poor, the more likely a student is to get fewer credits or drop out. This is especially true for black and Hispanic students and women, who have significantly less time to attend college than their peers, largely because of time spent at work and caring for children.

Our research explains that differences in the amount of time available for college are often the result of structural inequities in higher education, such as a lack of adequate financial aid for students who have children or who must work to pay off debt.

Why is it important

Time poverty explains the biggest difference in student outcomes. In one study, college dropouts spent an average of nine hours less per week in college than college dropouts. And students who earned more than 12 credits at one time had an average of 18 hours more per week in college than students who earned only six credits or less. Therefore, student outcomes are highly correlated with available academic time.

Often, there are gaps in college credit attainment among students from different racial, ethnic, or gender backgrounds. However, those gaps shrink significantly—or disappear entirely—when we compare students with the same amount of time available in college. This shows how important time is as a resource for completing a college degree.

Time poverty also leads to overwork, which can lead to burnout. For example, black women had the least time to attend college of any group. Compared to the group with the most time—Asian and Pacific Islander men—black women on average had fewer 24 hours per week to devote to their studies. However, both groups spent the same amount of time in college.

How is this possible?

Black, Hispanic, and female students give up an even greater portion of their free time—the time left over after paid work, housework, and childcare—to college than their peers. The average total time black women spent in college and paid and unpaid work was 75 hours per week, or the equivalent of more than two full-time jobs.

Our results show that this is true for all students. On average, the poorer they are, the more time they devote to their studies.

These sacrifices come at a cost: Students must give up time spent on sleep, food, health care, recreation, and exercise in order to make time for college. This is particularly concerning because overwork has been linked to negative effects on mental and physical health.

In previous research, my colleagues and I found that students who are parents—especially mothers—and students who choose to take online courses have less time available for college than their peers. This explains the difference in educational outcomes. Time poverty affects students from many different groups, but existing college policies, procedures, and structures rarely take it into account.

What’s next?

Even though nearly 1 in 4 undergraduates now have children, availability of on-campus childcare has been declining for decades, and childcare costs are not automatically included in financial aid. Student-parents must work extra hours to pay for their children’s living expenses, which are not covered by federal aid.

Even for students without children, financial aid rarely covers actual costs. Government financial need statistics often underestimate actual need, especially for students with lower socioeconomic status or additional family responsibilities. Current federal financial aid meets the needs of only 35.7% of US undergraduates. Therefore, many US students must work to pay for college, taking away time that could be better spent studying.

Providing students with enough financial aid to enroll in college, but not enough to complete college, is counterproductive. So giving students enough time—and thus money—for college is not only a sound investment but also essential to upholding the values ​​of fairness and opportunity for all.

Claire Wladis is a professor of urban education at the CUNY Graduate Center.

This article has been republished from The conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the first article.