School-Family and Family-School Enrichment: A Study with Portuguese Working Student Parents

Abstract

In recent years, higher education institutions have progressively undertaken efforts to attract more diversified populations to their programs, both in the first and second cycles. These new groups include students who work professionally and who are parents. The literature that aims to address the management of multiple roles of higher education students has mainly devoted its attention to the potential conflict of roles, with a scarcity of studies focused on the positive aspects that may result from this articulation. The present study aims to analyze the relationships between satisfaction with social support (in the academic/school, work, and family domain), satisfaction with role management and academic performance and school-family and family-school enrichment experiences. The study was carried out using a questionnaire, with 155 students working fathers/mothers allowed to identify predictors of school-family and family-school enrichment. The results provide a better understanding of the factors that contribute to a student role having a positive impact on other life roles, namely the professional role and the role of father/mother.

Keywords

• working student parents
• higher education
• school-family enrichment
• family-school enrichment