Jolll'lllli of Educational Psychology
1990, Vol. 82, No. 4, 760-768

Copyright 199() by the American Psychological Association, Inc.
0022-0663/90/$00.7S

College Students' Time Management:
Correlations With Academic Performance and Stress

Therese Hoff Macan
University of Missouri-St. Louis

Cornila Shahani

Hofstra University

Robert L. Dipboye and Amanda Peek Phillips
Rice University

Many college students may find the academic experience very stressful (Swick, 1987). One potential coping strategy frequently offered by university counseling services is time management. One hundred and sixty-five students completed a questionnaire assessing their time management behaviors and attitudes, stress, and self-perceptions of performance and grade point average. The study revealed 2 major findings. The Time Management Behavior Scale consists of 4 relatively independent factors; the most predictive was Perceived Control of Time. Students who perceived control of their time reported significantly greater evaluations of their performance, greaterwork and life satisfaction, less role ambiguity, less role overload, and fewer job-induced and somatic tensions. Findings are consistent with theory and advice on time management (e.g., Schuler,
1979) but also indicate that the dynamics of time management are more complex than previously believed.

In trying to read all the books and chapters assigned, meet paper deadlines, and participate in extracurricular activities, collegestudents may become overwhelmed with feelingsthat | | self-instruction time management manual with a managerial staff. He found that subjects and their co-workers reported more time management behaviors after instruction, but that | there is not enough time to complete all their work adequately. | |