Stressors, stress and coping in dual-demand environments: The case of working ‘back to schoolers’

The main objective of this study is to explore the coping behaviours of Israeli continuing education students who combine work and academic studies. Multi-level analyses revealed that: (1) perceived academic stress is determined by academic load and perceived work stress by workload; (2) coping strategies are related to an array of perceived stresses; and (3) perceived academic stress has a significant influence on coping strategies even after academic load, workload, social support and demographics are taken into account. A major inference of our results is that workers who face dual-demanding environments consider their work to be less controllable than their academic environment and use different coping behaviours to manage each of their dual-demand environments. Implications on the role of organisations in reducing stress of working students are discussed.