scholarly journals Financial Challenges and the Subjective Well‑being of First‑year Students at a Comprehensive South African University

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marinda Pretorius ◽  
Derick Blaauw
2020 ◽  
pp. 53-58
Author(s):  
Olga Viktorovna Bodenova ◽  
Lyudmila Pavlovna Vlasova

The article is devoted to the overview of one of the most current problems that arise in the process of supporting the adaptation of students. The paper reveals the content of the adaptation process, its content and procedural characteristics, describes the types and stages, and directions of diagnostics. The aim of the work is to identify the features of adaptation in first-year students, including the description of the specifics of difficulties of non-resident students’ adaption. The study was conducted at the Institute of Pedagogy and Psychology “Petrozavodsk State University” with first-year students studying in the fields of education 44.03.02 Psychological and pedagogical education, 44.03.01. Pedagogical education, 44.03.03 Special (defectologic) education. The following methods were used to test the hypothesis: «I am a student» survey, «Scale of subjective well-being» method, analysis of documents (medical records of students), quantitative and qualitative analysis. The results of the study. Analysis of the results of the study showed that non-resident students have both general and specific difficulties of adaptation due to the breakdown of previous family and friendships, lack of emotional support, difficult living conditions, a new neighborhood, a new type of settlement, etc. The obtained results are used for development and implementation of measures to support students during the adaptation period.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 1040-1049
Author(s):  
E. F. Yashchenko ◽  
O. V. Lazorak

The research objective was to determine the features, interrelations, and differences in subjective well-being, coping-strategies, and accentuations of personality traits. The experiment featured first-year students with different levels of subjective well-being that majored in technical sciences at the South Ural State University (National Research University) in Chelyabinsk (Russia). The research involved the subjective well-being scale developed by Perrudet-Badoux, Mendelsohn, and Chiche in M. V. Sokolova’s adaptation, R. Lazarus’s coping-test, and G. Schmieschek and K. Leonhard’s questionnaire. The experiment included 43 male students (mean age – 17,8), who were divided into three groups according to the level of subjective well-being. The first-year students with high and medium levels of subjective well-being had a wide range of coping strategies. The students with a low level of subjective well-being had an insufficient personal and psychoemotional resource to cope with adversities. The authors also defined priority links between accentuations, coping strategy, and subjective wellbeing. The experiment confirmed the hypothesis that first-year students with different levels of subjective well-being would have different indicators of coping strategies and accentuations of personality traits, as well as different structure of research scale connections. The results can help to create programs for the development of coping strategies in first-year students.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-53
Author(s):  
Aleksandr Viktorovich Antonovskii ◽  
Elena Vladimirovna Balakshina ◽  
Svetlana Igorevna Filippchenkova

Background. The article deals with the psychological features of adaptation in first-year university students. The main criteria indicating successful or failed adaptation are highlighted. The study was based on the concept describing human adaptation to changing environmental conditions as a dynamic process, as well as on psychological approaches that reveal the specific aspects of adaptation within the system of complex social relations of a new type. Aim. The article aims to study the features of adaptation in first-year university students through psychodiagnostics for the possibility of compensating negative trends in adaptation to new living conditions. Material and methods. The specificity of the response to educational conditions and students’ adaptation was determined by means of psychodiagnostics of subjective well-being, communicative tolerance, motivation for studying at University, moral normativity of behavior and neuropsychic stability. The sample consisted of students of technical and humanitarian specialties (n =284) aged from 17 to 21 years. Results. A number of important regularities have been established, the main of which are high communicative tolerance, orientation to compliance with the rules, intermediate type of motivation for studying, as well as differences in the severity of the studied characteristics in students, males and females. Conclusion. Adaptation to the components of university environment by first-year students is possible with the activation of all adaptation mechanisms. The nature of adaptation can be assessed through observation of students’ behavior in the team, as well as through the diagnosis of emotional experience, nervous tension, subjective well-being and communicative characteristics, which creates the basis for psychological and pedagogical support of young professionals.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
David De Coninck ◽  
Koen Matthijs ◽  
Patrick Luyten

In the transition from secondary to tertiary education, first-year students experience stress due to the academic, cultural, and social environment they must adapt to. This may negatively impact their subjective well-being, which in turn may negatively influence academic performance and increase the probability of dropping out. We report findings from a two-wave online study involving first-year students enrolled in a sociology course at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at the University of Leuven (Belgium). Students completed self-report questionnaires on sociodemographic background, subjective well-being, parental relationship quality, and personality, at the start (Time 1) and end (Time 2) of the first semester. 194 students (35%) completed measures at both times. Results show that subjective well-being decreased from the beginning to the end of the first semester. Well-being at university was positively, and feelings of depression negatively, related to subjective well-being at Time 1 and Time 2. Female students reported lower well-being than male students at Time 2 but not Time 1. The quality of the mother–child, but not the father–child, relationship was positively related to subjective well-being at Time 1 and Time 2.


Author(s):  
Anna Gennad'evna Samohvalova ◽  
Elena Viktorovna Tikhomirova ◽  
Oksana Nikolaevna Vishnevskaya ◽  
Natalia Sergeevna Shipova

The article deals with the problem of subjective well-being as an important component of the psychological well-being of an individual. The degree of satisfaction with life among university students enrolled in different areas of training is analysed; the specificity of subjective perception by first-year students of their own success in various spheres of life is revealed. The study involved 230 first-year students of Kostroma State University, enrolled in four different areas of study. The results of the study showed that students at the beginning of their professional path, regardless of the direction of training in which they study, rather highly assess the degree of their success in life; are self-confident, plan their lives and set goals for the future. At the same time, the degree of subjective well-being of students is low; students are not completely satisfied with their life and their place in it; they are instead focused mainly on the emotional richness of their own life. The leading motives of students are professional motives that affect the effectiveness of educational activities and are associated with assessing their own success in life. It was found that ideation innovativeness is insufficiently developed among freshmen; they prefer to work within established rules, are more focused on solving a problem than on finding it, and have difficulty applying and analysing new ideas. Revealing the specifics of the subjective well-being of freshmen who entered the university in different areas of training allows outlining the prospects for psychological and pedagogic support of students at all stages of training in the framework of increasing the level of their psychological well-being in the educational environment of the university.


2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 446-459
Author(s):  
Verushka Zaskia Daniels ◽  
Eugene Lee Davids ◽  
Nicolette Vanessa Roman

The first year of university creates new experiences and challenges for first years and lays the foundation for the subsequent years of study. This first year has implications for academic development, mental health, and well-being of students and subsequently student retention. The majority of South African university students stay within their familial home unlike their international counterparts. The family may therefore play a contributory role in adjustment to university but this role is somewhat unclear. The current study therefore aimed to establish the associations between university adjustments of first year students, family structure, and parenting. The study employed a cross-sectional design, with a sample of 556 first year undergraduate students at a South African university. The data were collected using an electronic self-administered questionnaire on a secure online platform using the Perceived Parental Autonomy Support Scale and the College Adaptation Questionnaire. Data analysis included hierarchical regression analyses and one-way analyses of variance to determine and compare the relationships between the variables. The results suggest that students from two-parent families were more adjusted than those from one-parent families. Autonomy-supportive parenting predicted positive university adjustment for the total sample, but only maternal autonomy-supportive parenting predicted good adjustment for students in two-parent families. This study highlights the potential role parents and families may play in the adjustment of first year students to university. This is particularly relevant in South Africa where many students are first-generation students, are challenged in transitioning to university, and this may have subsequent mental health–related challenges.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 467-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marinda Pretorius ◽  
Derick Blaauw

The 1970s saw a significant increase in the volume of research on individuals’ subjective experience of well-being. The subjective well-being of university students has received less attention, however. Student well-being is important, given the widespread concern over the high dropout rates at institutions of higher learning in South Africa (Council of Higher Education, 2013; Van Zyl, 2010). The paper adds to the existing body of literature through an exposition on the possible influence of variables forthcoming from the literature, on the overall subjective well-being of first-year economics students at a comprehensive university. Variables that displayed a significant and positive contribution to subjective well-being were first-year and extended-degree students, the university being the institution of choice, feeling at home, knowing exactly how the university functions, and watching or participating in sport. Variables that were found to be significant with a negative contribution to subjective well-being levels were: worries about tests, studying less than 10 hours per week and, interestingly, living on campus.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document