Earning a university education may be one of the most critical experiences an individual could have. For numerous persons, a university degree initiates a fresh profession path, works as a facilitator for upper salary earnings, or just gives a sense of personal achievement and satisfaction. Along with these plus several other favorable elements of higher learning, comes plenty of stressors. The demands for university are vigorous and entail exams, protracted hours of revising, and shortage of sleep, deadlines, poor dietary lifestyles, as well as individual growth work which comprises the evaluation of self, counting social and philosophical principles. The current paper seeks to explore the stressors of nontraditional students, with regard to students at Utah Valley University.
Even though some scholars incorporated main life roles their definitions of the nontraditional scholar, a majority of the current and past study employs merely an overall age-centered classification of nontraditional and traditional learners (Austin & Lockmiller, 2016). The age-centered distinctions of learners describe traditional learners as those aged between eighteen and twenty-four and nontraditional learners as those aged twenty-five and above (Jones, Mendenhall & Myers, 2016). Nevertheless, several other aspects distinguish traditional from non-traditional learners. Some scholars include attrition risk factors when describing a nontraditional learner, including being a lone parent, being monetarily independent of the parents, fulltime working, or having dependent relative apart from a partner (Forbus, Newbold & Mehta, 2011).
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
According to Utah Valley University Inclusion and Diversity Annual Report (2017), at Utah Valley University, approximately thirty-two percent of learners at UVU are regarded as non-traditional (that is, age twenty-five and above). Also, roughly one percent of students are identified as nonconforming or genderqueer. About thirty-six percent of learners are considered the first generation. Also, three percent of learners have army experience. About forty percent of learners are in a domestic partnership or married, while seventeen percent of learners have dependent kids (Student Demographics, 2018). Moreover, roughly fifty-one percent of learners work for at least twenty-one hours every week, while twenty-seven percent of learners work at least thirty-one hours every week.
Stress and time management issues might be considerably dissimilar for a nontraditional learner compared to a traditional learner (Austin & Lockmiller, 2016). Whereas traditional learners encounter stressors like leaving home for the initial time, adapting to a more independent atmosphere, exploring the social changeover from secondary school to university and handling pressure from family to perform well educationally; nontraditional learners encounter a dissimilar group of stressors, including household duties counting caring for companion, kids, or elderly parents; job tasks plus financial duties; and also, they could be academically unready because of parting from prescribed learning for several years (Austin & Lockmiller, 2016). Therefore, non-traditional learners might encounter added stressors and manage the stressors faced in university in a different way than traditional university learners.
Examination anxiety is regarded as the major cause of anxiety in both traditional and nontraditional sets, nonetheless, nontraditional learners had been open to various teaching methods via personal experiences, their work, and community, and the experience is advantageous to their education. Furthermore, nontraditional learners face sizably more time restraints and role struggles than traditional learners do (Forbus, Newbold & Mehta, 2011). Nevertheless, the nontraditional learners report greater contentment with the college, show substantially less educational stress, and experience a much smaller amount of adverse health associated symptoms. Nevertheless, the study shows that nontraditional learners not believing they suit the normative “good learner” model suffer more stress (Austin & Lockmiller, 2016). A survey on the academic and personal adaptation of nontraditional learners holding more than one key life roles (to be precise, parent, partner, or employer) along with the learner role, revealed that this sub-set of nontraditional learners, those dedicated to the learner role but feel they don’t suit the “good learner” model, had higher risk of stress (Jones, Mendenhall & Myers, 2016).
In spite of the numerous stressors which are real for university nontraditional learners, there are certain approaches to minimalize these stressors. The success of time management expertise on lessening educational pressure has been well recognized. Effective time management expertise has similarly been associated with upper-grade point means. Augmented marks on time management performances are linked to less somatic strain, bigger contentment with life and job, and greater self-reported performance (Forbus, Newbold & Mehta, 2011). Nontraditional learners can have a more regular application of time management activities like creating lists, planning, and scheduling. Nontraditional learners with augmented time management practices perceive themselves to be more successful employees with greater morale levels and reduced stress levels.
In a nutshell, superimposing all of the stressors linked to being a university nontraditional learner is the matter of just how to handle all of the responsibilities involved. Indeed, time management is one of the major academic concerns for learners. There is a noteworthy connection between stress measures and perceived management of time. Individuals who exercise time management practices are clearer regarding their responsibility and distinguish that they do better. In the same way, nontraditional learners may significantly ease their educational stress through the practice of efficient time management and revising well. Thus, despite the fact that educational stressors for university nontraditional learners may be abundant and intense, time management expertise could truly be intensely associated with the level of stress a learner really experiences.
References
Austin, D., & Lockmiller, B. (2016). An Examination of How Traditional and Non-traditional Students Differ in Perceived Stress and How They Manage Stress. Missouri Journal of Health, Physical Education, Recreation & Dance , 26 .
Forbus, P., Newbold, J. J., & Mehta, S. S. (2011). A study of non-traditional and traditional students in terms of their time management behaviors, stress factors, and coping strategies. Academy of Educational Leadership Journal , 15 , 109.
Jones, K., Mendenhall, S., & Myers, C. A. (2016). The effects of sex and gender role identity on perceived stress and coping among traditional and nontraditional students. Journal of American college health , 64 (3), 205-213.
Student Demographics (excludes concurrent enrollment) FALL 2018. Retrieved from: https://www.uvu.edu/iri/documents/additional_resources/information_briefs/fall_2018_student_demographics.pdf
Utah Valley University 2017 Inclusion and Diversity Annual Report. Retrieved from https://www.uvu.edu/inclusion/docs/inclusion_report_2016-2017.pdf
