Study Crafting eMagazine

ASIYEH, MARLEENA, & SEDA

E M A G A Z I N E

STUDY C R A F T I N G

Introduction

The requirements of higher education to students are high and the students are increasingly experiencing mental and emotional stress, and the pressure even increased more during the special circumstances over the COVID19 period (Werner et al 2021)

The well-being of students have been approached via study crafting, which is based on the concept of job crafting and aims to identify the strategies used to modify the requirements and resources related to studies, to make them match better with the students’ personal needs, resources and interests The relations of study crafting to student health and well-being, study engagement and emotional exhaustion are in the main scope of interest. In this study, we are developing and testing a questionnaire to analyze the mentioned phenomena among an international group of higher education students. The questionnaire is based on previous studies, and it is being modified to serve this purpose.

The questionnaire is tested by a group of students In addition to that, a focus group interview is conducted about the applicability and strategies of study crafting. The content of the interview is analyzed to evaluate the decisions made to develop the questionnaire and to further understand the phenomenon to continue the research on a larger scale.

LITERATURE REVIEW

There is a growing indication that higher education students are not feeling well in their studies. Particularly, with the changes that came along during the coronavirus pandemic, higher education students’ lives have become more complicated and workload has grown significantly.

According to an American College Health Association (2015) survey, students in higher education across the USA are under a lot of stress, which is seen as the leading cause of academic hindrance With numerous activities and limited amount of time to complete them, students reported that they do too much with too little

A news article is usually on a well-defined topic or topics that are related in some way, such as a factual account of a newsworthy event The writer is objective and shows all sides to an issue

“40% of college students in the U S admit to feeling inadequately-rested five out of seven days a week

One in four American college students indicate that lack of sleep has affected their academic performance in a negative way: lower grades, missed a paper or project deadline, or had to withdraw from class

U S students who sleep six or fewer hours a night have a lower Grade Point Average (GPA) than those who get eight or more

40% of American college students take naps, but nappers tend to sleep less in total than non-nappers.

45% of American college students claimed to undergo “ more than average stress ” while 33% of students reported “ average stress” and 12 7% saying it is “tremendous stress ” Students who reported “ no stress” or “less than average stress” combined for 9% total

8 out of 10 university students in the U K reported stress and/or anxiety in school

45% of United Kingdom students reported feeling stressed by their course, which is higher than students who are enjoying their classes (41%) ”

STUDY CRAFTING

In the light of evidence, it’s safe to say that students’ well-being has significantly degraded over the past several years Research shows that adjusting their studies according to their personal needs, studying becomes less stressful and more satisfying

Study crafting is based on the job crafting model by Demerouti and et al in their Job Demands-Resources Model(JD-R) in the work context (2001) They discussed how burnout and employee engagement has grown among workers Burnout in students is defined as being overwhelmed and exhausted by study expectations, having a cynical and disconnected attitude toward one's studies, and feeling inept as a student (Schaufeli et al 2002)

Engagement is centered around human strengths and successful performance rather than on weaknesses and failures (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000) Engagement is defined as a positive, fulfilling, and work-related state of mind marked by vigor, dedication, and absorption Engagement is more related to the persistent and affective-cognitive state rather than being focused on specific items or behavior

Vigor, the first dimension of engagement, is defined as having a high degree of energy and mental resilience when working, as well as the willingness and ability to put effort into one's task Dedication is described as a sense of significance passion inspiration, pride, and challenge. Absorption, the final dimension of engagement, is characterized by being fully concentrated and happily absorbed in one's work, where time goes swiftly and one gets carried away by the task (Schaufeli et al , 2002)

Job crafting has been introduced as an action to redesign the tasks, relationships and attitudes toward work (Berg et al , 2007) Further research indicates that the job crafting approach is positively associated with how well being needs of employees are fulfilled in their workplace (Slemp & Vella-Broderick, 2013)

Based on the job crafting theory, Mokgele and Rothmann (2014), have created the study demandsresources framework (SD-R) for the education context Since students' performance in their studies are in many ways largely similar to employees’, studying the reasons for students’ high stress levels through a similar model is an effective way to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomena.

According to Robins et al (2015) using relevant theories to study student burnout and engagement is crucial to gain a concrete perspective on the reasons and effects of these in their educational achievements The applicability of the JD-R theory in higher education settings has been tested and confirmed by Lesener et al (2020) Their findings indicate that there is a direct correlation between high study demands and lack of study resources, and student burnout

A recent research conducted in a German university (Mülder et al , 2022) shows that students who actively used distinct crafting strategies experienced an improvement in their health and well-being In their article, Distinct Patterns of University Students Study Crafting and the Relationships to Exhaustion, WellBeing, and Engagement, the authors attempt to focus on the association between the study crafting and the wellbeing of higher education students They examined 2,882 students and with reference to the to the concept of job crafting in the workplace, the researchers classify study crafting,

STUDY CRAFTING

adapted version of the job crafting to the university environment, into four essential categories: (1) increasing structural resources, (2) increasing social resources, (3) increasing challenging demands, and (4) decreasing hindering demands They elaborate that distinct crafting dimensions can be grouped into approach crafting (categories 1-3) and avoidance crafting (category 4) Based on the findings of Mäkikangas (2018), the students, on the other hand, can be divided into two clusters, active crafters who apply approach crafting and passive crafters who tend to use avoidance methods of study crafting The findings of Mülder at al (2022) suggest increasing social resources had less impact on reducing emotional exhaustion compared to increasing structural resources and challenging demands Student well-being however hasn’t been researched nearly as much as employee well-being.

In our study we have applied the SD-R model to develop a questionnaire to measure study crafting and its relations to health and well-being, study engagement, and emotional exhaustion among international higher education students The questionnaire was evaluated by a focus group of seven students in the Changing Education Master’s programme in Helsinki University

UNDER THE SCOPE

PURPOSEOFTHE

STUDYANDRESEARCH QUESTIONS

The purpose of this study is to develop a questionnaire for studying the concept of study crafting and its relations to health and well-being, study engagement and emotional exhaustion in an international, English-speaking group of students The applicability of the questionnaire is evaluated by recruiting a focus group of students to test and evaluate the questionnaire and to discuss the dimensions of the study crafting The purpose of the interview is also to create a deeper qualitative understanding of the student s perceptions of the topic and potentially to get input to develop the questionnaire further to be utilised in a larger-scale quantitative research Thus, the research questions are the following:

METHODOLOGY

INSTRUMENTS

aire consists of five parts: 5 background question sets related to study crafting dy engagement and emotional ck here to view the full questionnaire ting instrument was modified slightly to es of this study The other instruments to follow the emerging tradition to the

The first part consists of four simple background questions that could be needed in the analysis: age, sex, nationality, whether the participant has any diagnosed learning difficulties and the amount of the previous higher studies measured in years

The study crafting questionnaire consisted of 13 items The questionnaire is based on the questionnaire used by Mülder et al (2022) They had chosen three items per study crafting strategy that had the highest loading for each item However some modifications were made As the questionnaire utilized by Mülder et al (2022) was in German, it was translated to English

The English wording in the questionnaire followed the solutions by Tims Bakker and Derks (2011) job crafting scale and the decisions made by Mülder et al (2022) The terms referring to job crafting were replaced by terms referring to studying (e g supervisor to teacher work to studies) Also, two additions were made; first of all, Mülder et al (2022) had chosen to leave out the avoidance crafting (decreasing hindering demands) strategy from their study This decision was made based on the results of Mäkikangas (2018) study as in this study only 6% of the participants showed this passive crafting approach Since Mäkikangas’ study is focused on job crafting there could be some differences compared to study crafting

Is the questionnaire understandable and easy to use for the participants?

How do the participants perceive the dimensions of study crafting and what kind of example strategies they mention related to those?

In this study, we also decided to include this aspect, since that is originally an essential element of job crafting theory (Tims, Bakker and Derks 2011) and so far it seems to be an essential part of study crafting techniques Another addition to the scale was made by adding one item describing the need of peer support since that could be one item describing increasing social resources in studies. It was expected that the focus group interview regarding the questionnaire could either confirm or reject this assumption and serve in developing the questionnaire further. The 5-step Likert scale used with this instrument varied from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree

The student’s health and well-being was measured by a 5-item questionnaire developed by World Health Organisation (1998), utilizing a six-point Likert scale varying from All of the time to At no time.

The study engagement was measured by the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale for Students (Schaeufli et al 2002 Schaufli et al 2019). In this study, we decided to use the 9-item version of the scale to enable adding nuances and to keep the length of the scale relatively similar to the others although an even shorter 3-item scale of the same tool also exists A six-point Likert scale All of the time to At no time was utilized

The emotional exhaustion was measured by the Maslach Burnout inventory adapted for studies (Maslach & Jackson 1981, Schaeufli et al 2002) It consists of 16 items, measured on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from Never to Always

THEFOCUSGROUPINTERVIEW

The semi-structured focus group interview involved seven 1st year students in the Changing Education Master’s Degree Programme at the University of Helsinki We interviewed four female and three male participants from six different nationalities All three researchers were present throughout the interview and the entire session was recorded. The interview lasted approximately fifty minutes, which included an introduction and filling in the consent form.

Participants responded to the study crafting questionnaire which was followed by a brief feedback on the usability of the questionnaire. Responding to the questionnaire took approximately ten minutes The discussion continued with the focus group interview The focus group discussion consisted of four theme questions. For each question, they were shown 3-4 statements related to the study crafting strategy in question. The statements were exactly the same as in the questionnaire. The same statements are also listed in the analysis section. The participants were asked to reflect if they find these types of strategies relevant in their own studies and how they apply these strategies As recommended by Krueger (2002), the questions were predetermined Additional clarifications and examples were requested when necessary.

ANALYSIS

When testing the questionnaire, the participants stated unanimo the questionnaire was easy comprehend and to fill in T response time around 10 m was relatively short They did identify any improvement n The positive feedback from participants indicate that th questionnaire is comprehen and concise What’s more t found the statements in the questionnaire to be useful in reflecting on their studies and mental well-being

The preliminary content analysis of the interview transcript was done independently by all three researchers through both deductive and inductive approaches to ensure the validity of the analysis via triangulation (Hirsjärvi et al 2009)

After that, the content was reanalysed and the three analyses were compared and combined The findings were grouped under the four main study crafting strategies: increasing structural resources, increasing social resources increasing challenging demands, and decreasing hindering demands The interviewees were not shown or explained the strategy categories but they were only shown the independent statements In the following section we will share the details of our analysis section by section and also highlight the statements related to that strategy

In our analysis, we noticed that the participants emphasized the importance of developing their knowledge throughout their studies while prioritizing their mental and emotional well-being Although the interviewees showed strong interest towards learning and developing themselves, they were very clear that the first priority is to ensure their personal mental well-being and study only as much as their resources allow For example, moving to another country for studies was experienced to be mentally challenging and adapting to the new environment was prioritized over increasing structural resources An example of a strategy here was taking a course on soft skills and communication to support practical education work

g structural resources: evelop my capabilities evelop myself professionally udies, I try to learn new things on to the mandatory studies)

The participants see teachers as role models and sources of inspiration However, they feel that they do not receive sufficient coaching and guidance from them Some of them are even a bit hesitant to talk to the teachers Clearly peer support is a recurring theme in the entire interview as the participants feel that peer support helps in decreasing anxiety and is used as a crucial crafting strategy “Whenever I have been successful at achieving this has been with a good support network from peers ” Practically all students reported that they found peer support more important than the support from teachers

This highly applies to me I love trying new things when they come up and I love um when I don’t have as much work, I love new projects ” The interview revealed that some of the participants are eager to learn new skills However, as new challenges bring along anxiety of failure, the participants emphasized that they prioritize their mental wellbeing due to past experiences of high stress levels As a crafting strategy they prefer learning new skills with the support of a peer or a peer group

For example, in my bachelors I tried to run R by myself but I couldn t continue it because I didn t have peers but now here with peers I actually enjoy learning R with other students and statistics So yeah that’s my opinion ( ) Well I need peers to learn new things ”

Increasing social resources

Avoidance crafting was actively applied by many participants This indicates that participants are aware of the negative impact of high stress levels Particularly, academic requirements were discussed extensively and the desired level of academic achievement seemed to make a difference on the stress levels The more ambitious grade targets the students had the more they talked about stress and vice versa The participants brought up several examples of how they avoid undesired impacts mental overload There were for example restricting workload, avoiding social contacts and social media, lesser emphasis on academic achievement avoiding extra challenges or new projects, and mental recovery techniques like meditation, drawing, going for walks or journaling

Increasing challenging demands

When an interesting project comes along, I offer proactively to participate

If there are new developments, I am one of the first to learn about them and try them out

When the study load is low, I see it as a chance to start new projects

Decreasing hindering demands

I make sure that my studies are not mentally too intense

I try to ensure that my studies are not emotionally too intense

I manage my studies so that I try to minimize contact with people whose problems affect me emotionally

I ask my teacher to coach me

I ask my teacher for feedback on my study performance

I look to my teachers for inspiration. I seek support from my peer students

“

What I find really helpful here is that there's always a chance you can drop a course if it’s too much”

“I noticed I haven’t been answering any whatsapp messages for like 2 days”

“I don’t really wanna talk to anyone when I feel emotionally intense so I always carry this sort of book I have a smaller one but I write journals for the reason why I just write a lot of things and that works I think.”

An overarching theme in the discussions was the comparison between different cultures and educational systems, which is natural in such a multinational group with versatile educational backgrounds. The discussion made it rather clear that the students’ study crafting strategies were dependent on the system they are studying in It could be so, that some of the strategies were more needed in some systems or there might also have been situations where the nature of the education system did not enable use of certain strategies Therefore, the interviewees reported that they might have completely changed their strategies when studying in their current (Finnish) programme instead of the home country

“ like in my Bachelor’s I was so stressed because I wanted to have a good grade so that I can apply for this program but now here in Masters ‘ cause I have no intention to continue to study after this I’m pretty much like a relaxed about my grades I can just learn and enjoy those things.”

DISCUSSION

The research project aimed at: 1 2

creating and testing a questionnaire to be used in measuring study crafting and its relation to health and well-being, study engagement and emotional exhaustion in an international, English-speaking group of students and achieving more deep pre-understanding of the study crafting dimensions as perceived by the students.

Testing the questionnaire turned out to be successful. All seven participants of the focus group found the questionnaire easy to understand and use. The time required to fill in the questionnaire was relatively short, approximately 10 minutes, which was not overwhelming Also, as the questionnaire did not take too long to respond, it is safe to say that the quality of responses is relatively good due to the fact that participants' mental resources were not exhausted - What’s more, the ease of using the questionnaire indicates that the wording in the instructions of each section were successful

The participants also highlighted that filling in the questionnaire enabled them to reflect their own approach to their studies and review their current mental and emotional well-being Although this is not reported as a result as such, it seems to be a positive bi-product of the study

An item reflecting the use of peer support (“I seek support from my peer students”) was added to the questionnaire in contrast to the decisions of Mülder et al (2022), who did not include this item in their survey, as it did not have the strongest loadings in the factor analysis when validating the survey. The participants in the focus interview highlighted the importance of peer support extensively, they deemed it more important than support from the teachers As the analysis of our interview reveals a more significant need for items focusing on peer relationship than teacher-student relationship, it seemed crucial to adjust our survey accordingly

Another major observation was the strong emphasis the students placed on their mental health and well-being On multiple occasions during the interview, the participants stressed the importance of avoiding mentally and emotionally stressful situations over other aims and strategies, such as improving their personal skills or seeking additional challenges This suggests that including the dimension of ”decreasing hindering demands” should be integrated into the study, on contrary to the ideas of Mäkikangas (2018) and Mülder et al (2022)

Another intriguing component highlighted during this interview was the merging of two separate techniques to avoid the anxiety that could be caused if the strategy was used alone. For instance, some interviewees expressed an interest in participating in new projects only if they were designed as collaborative projects They needed peer support to deal with the stress of a new challenge and set that as a requirement for taking over new challenges at all This resonates with the tendency to highlight the need and importance of peer support

An additional major theme to be considered in this type of multicultural student group is taking their educational background into account. In the focus group discussion, the participants actively reflected on their study crafting strategies to cope with stress in their previous studies It was remarkable to observe that they had almost completely changed their strategies based on the requirements of the educational system context and the stage of their studies Finding quantitative evidence for this could be an interesting theoretical contribution to further study crafting research Therefore, it is essential to keep the nationality and the amount of previous studies as part of the questionnaire to be able to compare the connection between educational background and coping strategies.

As mentioned, the participants of the focus group interview were all from the same group and same faculty This naturally limits the applicability of the results to some extent Different groups of students from various programmes might naturally highlight different types of themes. However, for reviewing the functionality of the questionnaire, this group matches the target of an international group that studies in English and would take the questionnaire in English. Additionally, multinational composition of the group serves well in providing different perspectives to the themes in question

Conclusions

As the main conclusion of this study we can confirm the applicability of the questionnaire for the purpose of researching the concept of study crafting among the international, English-language students. The modifications made to the questionnaire, the additional question related to the need of peer support and the slight language amendments seem justified Also, including the category of decreasing hindering demands, seems to be a logical and valid solution, since both of the themes were strongly highlighted in the focus group interview The theme of mental health and avoiding emotional exhaustion was heavily stressed in the discussions Therefore, a connection between health and well-being and active study crafting seems to be highlighted here.

The impact of national background / type of educational system attended seems to be an important underlying variable That should be taken into account in analyzing the actual data that would be collected by the questionnaire in this study Additionally, the importance of the educational background in relation to study crafting strategies used is a relevant topic to be explored further

REFERENCES

Asikainen, H., Kaipainen, K., & Katajavuori, N. (2019). Understanding and promoting students’ well-being and performance in university studies Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 16(5) https://doi.org/10.53761/1.16.5.2

Berg, J M , Dutton, J E , & Wrzesniewski, A (2007) What is Job Crafting and Why Does It Matter? Retrieved from https://positiveorgs bus umich edu/wpcontent/uploads/What-is-Job-Craftingand-Why-Does-it-Matter1.pdf

Bouchrika, I (2022, October 5) 50 Current Student Stress Statistics: 2021/2022 Data, Analysis & Predictions. Research.com. https://research com/education/studentstress-statistics

Lesener, T , Pleiss, L S , Gusy, B , & Wolter, C. (2020). The Study DemandsResources Framework: An Empirical Introduction Int J Environ Res Public Health, 17, 5183.

Maslach, C , & Jackson, S E (1981) The measurement of experienced burnout Journal of Occupational Behavior, 2, 99113 https://doiorg libproxy helsinki fi/10 1002/job 4030 020205

Mokgele, K.R.F., & Rothmann, S. A.(2014). structural model of student well-being South Afr J Psychol 44, 514–527

Hirsjärvi, S & Remes, P & Sajavaara, Paula (2009, 1-2 p. 1997). Tutki ja kirjoita. 15. uudistettu painos. Helsinki: Tammi.

Kujanpaa , M , Syrek , C , Tay , L , Kinnunen , U , Mäkikangas , A , Shimazu , A , Wiese , C W , Brauchli , R , Bauer , G F , Kerksieck , P , Toyama , H & de Bloom , J 2022 , ' Needs-based off-job crafting across different life domains and contexts : Testing a novel conceptual and measurement approach ' , Frontiers in Psychology , vol 13 , 959296 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.95929

6

Krueger, R 2002 Designing and conducting focus group interviews University of Minnesota. https://www.eiu.edu/ihec/KruegerFocusGroupInterviews pdf

Körner, L S ; Rigotti, T ; Rieder, K Study Crafting and Self-Undermining in Higher Education Students: A Weekly Diary Study on the Antecedents. Int. J. Environ. Res Public Health 2021, 18, 7090 https://doi org/10 3390/Ijerph18137090

Mülder LM, Schimek S, Werner AM, Reichel JL, Heller S, Tibubos AN, Schäfer M, Dietz P, Letzel S, Beutel ME, Stark B, Simon P and Rigotti T (2022) Distinct Patterns of University Students Study Crafting and the Relationships to Exhaustion, Well-Being, and Engagement Front. Psychol. 13:895930. doi: 10 3389/fpsyg 2022 895930

Mäkikangas, A 2018 Job crafting profiles and work engagement: A person-centered approach Journal of Vocational Behavior, Volume 106,2018, Pages 101-111, ISSN 0001-8791. https://doi org/10 1016/j jvb 2018 01 001 (https://www sciencedirect com/science/a rticle/pii/S0001879118300010)

Robins, T.G.; Roberts, R.M.; Sarris, A. Burnout and Engagement in Health Profession Students: The Relationships Between Study Demands, Study Resources and Personal Resources Australas. J. Organ. Psychol. 2015, 8, 1–13.

Schaufeli, W B , Shimazu, A , Hakanen, J , Salanova, M , and De Witte, H (2019). An ultra-short measure for work engagement Eur J Psychol Assess 35, 577–591 doi: 10 1027/10155759/a000430 https://journals-sagepubcom libproxy helsinki fi/doi/abs/10 1177/0 022022102033005003

Schaufeli, W. B., Martínez, I.M., Marques Pinto A , Salanova, M , Bakker, A B (2002) Burnout and engagement in university students A cross-national study Journal of cross-cultural psychology, Vol 33 No 5, September 2002 464-481

Schaufeli, W B , Salanova, M , GonzalezRomá, V , and Bakker, A B (2002) The measurement of engagement and burnout A confirmative analytic approach J Happiness Stud 3, 71–92 doi: 10 1023/A:1015630930326

Seligman, M E P ,&Csikszentmihalyi, M (2000) Positive psychology: An introduction American Psychologist, 55, 5-14

Slemp, G R , & Vella-Brodrick, D A (2013) The Job Crafting Questionnaire: A new scale to measure the extent to which employees engage in job crafting International Journal of Wellbeing, 3(2), 126-146

Tims, M , Bakker, A B , & Derks, D (2012) Development and validation of the job crafting scale. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 80, 173–186. http://dx.doi.org/10. 1016/j jvb 2011 05 009

Werner, A , Tibubos, A , Mülder, L M , Reichel, J L , Schäfer, M , Heller, S , et al (2021) The impact of lockdown stress and loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health among university students in Germany. Sci. Rep. 11:22637. doi: 10 1038/s41598-021-02024-5

World Health Organisation (1998) Wellbeing measures in primary health care / the DEPCARE project. https://www.euro.who.int/ data/assets/pdf file/0016/130750/E60246 pdf