Writing Award for Resilience And Work-Life Balance Research

18 June 2013

Writing Award for Resilience And Work-Life Balance Research
The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Waikato has awarded the first of six $10,000 postdoctoral writing awards for emerging academics to completed psychology PhD student Derek Riley.

Riley’s PhD research focused on the longitudinal relationship of work-life balance, and resilience between work and family conflict and psychological well-being among New Zealand health professionals.

Within this framing, he says he examined several important issues. “I looked at many factors including perceptions of work-life balance, levels of psychological resilience, and social support from work (supervisor and colleagues) and non-work (friends and family) members”.

Advertised as the Postdoctoral Stipendiary Awards 2013, these were available to recent PhD students in the faculty who could show plans for publishing collaborations with academic staff.

From June 1 to August 31 this year, this dairy farmer-turned-academic will be producing a publication following on from his PhD research that will be submitted to the International Journal of Stress and Health.

Riley’s research stemmed from a wider international work-life balance project of which University of Waikato Professor Michael O’Driscoll, Riley’s supervisor, is involved in. The longitudinal project spanned three years and has now been completed.

Professor O’Driscoll is pleased that the importance of his research has been recognised and that this award gives Riley the financial support to produce a high calibre publication.

“For the Award Riley is working on a journal article to submit to an international journal, highlighting in particular the importance of psychological resilience for well-being,” says Professor O’Driscoll.

Catharine Coleborne, the Associate Dean Graduate and Postgraduate for the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences acknowledges the value of these awards in fostering research collaboration in the faculty.

"By demonstrating the serious investment we wish to make in the academic and scholarly futures of postgraduate students, we are signalling that their presence in our faculty is valued for their research collaboration, their original contributions to knowledge and their collegial presence."

ENDS

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