College student performance and credit card usage

Journal of College Student Development, Jan/Feb 2001 by Pinto, Mary Beth, Parente, Diane H, Palmer, Todd Starr

Y'ers have grown up as lifelong consumers, influencing the purchasing decisions of their parents in a variety of situations such as retail stores, at home, in cars, at the movies, during TV viewing, on vacation, and so on. Although some Y'ers had their own money and made their first purchases as young as preschool age, the median age for beginning these activities is 8 years (McNeal & Yeh, 1993). Shopping, buying, and going to malls are an integral component of socializing and serve as a major form of entertainment.

Changing social and cultural trends, along with technological advances have shaped many of the behaviors of this group (Omelia, 1998). Because a majority of Y'ers have been raised (or are being raised) in nontraditional families with mothers who work full-time, they have become independent consumers earlier in life than did previous generations (McNeal & Yeh, 1993). In addition, due to their technological sophistication, Generation Y is a prime target for companies using the Internet and other technologies to pitch their products and services (Krol & Cuneo, 1998). As a result, they are much more likely to use the World Wide Web to order merchandise and make payments (Mulhern, 19971.

The spending power of this generation is enormous. They are expected to have a buying power of roughly $156 billion by the year 2000 (Dugas, 1999). The majority of this group, ages 16 to 18, work either full- or part-time (Munk, 1997). According to Bureau of Labor statistics, Generation Y started working very young; 57% of all 14-year-olds have some work experience (Mandell, 1999). Not only does Generation Y have more money than previous generations, they like spending it; saving money for college or contributing a portion to the family were not major reasons for employment (Armstrong, 1999; Speer, 1998).

An enormous amount of research has examined factors that are related, either positively or negatively, to college student academic performance. Among the factors that have been found to predict, or at least correlate with student performance are: personal background of the student (Betts, 1999), academic factors (Bourde, 1998; Ely, 1990), stress (Barling, 1999; Goldman, 1997) and lifestyle activities (Cheung, 1998; Emmons, Wechsler, Dowdall, & Abraham, 1998; Maloney, 1993). Interestingly, one major component of college students' lifestyles is employment (National Center for Education Statistics, 1997). Today, 55% to 80% of students work while attending college (King, 1998; Miller, 1997). Although no doubt many students are forced to work to finance their education, several authors have argued that college students often voluntarily decide to seek employment so that they can make certain lifestyle choices. Employment offers them the means to have many of the material goods afforded by their parents.

The research on student employment and its impact on academic performance offer some mixed messages. Some findings show a nonsignificant relationship between part-time work commitments and academic achievement (Davis & Murrell, 1993; Hatcher, Prus, Endlehard, & Farmer, 1991). Other research suggests that students who work off campus tend to show less persistence in academic pursuits and tend to graduate later (Ehrenberg, 1987; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991; Volkwein, 1989). For example, Bourde, Byrd, and Mondani (1996) found a negative relationship between hours of employment and academic performance in an introductory finance course. At the very least, employment has been shown to have a negative impact on whether students enroll the next year in school and tends to delay graduation (Ehrenberg, 1987; Kine 1998).