scholarly journals Managing the Transition to College

Author(s):  
Vanessa K. Johnson ◽  
Susan E. Gans ◽  
Sandra Kerr ◽  
Kelly Deegan

In the present study we examine family based explanation for variability in adolescents' academic, social, and personal/emotional adjustment to college. Using a sample of 56 first-year college students, we test the hypothesis that adolescents' emotional coping strategies will moderate the relationship between ther pre-college family environment and their college adjustment assessed during both their first and second college semesters. Results support this hypothesis, indicating that by the end of their first college year, participants from cohesive families who are emotion managers report particularly strong adjustment to the academic and personal/emotional challenges of the transition to college.

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Shinta Vionita ◽  
Rahmah Hastuti

College adjustment comes from adjustment, which means the adjustment of students to the environment in college.  The way students adjust during the first year of college is a prediction of significant life events later in their college career. In college adjustments, there are four dimensions, including academic adjustment, social adjustment, personal emotional adjustment, and goal commitment institutional attachment. This study aims to find an overview of first year college students during the Covid-19 pandemic. This study had 345 freshman college students as participants ranging in age from 18 to 25 who were studying at universities in Jakarta. The measuring instrument used was the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ). Based on the results of data processing carried out to describe college adjustment of first year college students during the Covid-19 pandemic using descriptive methods and different demographic data tests, it was found that college adjustments had differences in the gender of men and women, and had no differences in the type of college, age, faculty, and current residence. The results of this study can also be concluded that the dimension of goal commitment to institutional attachment has the highest mean value, followed by social adjustment, academic adjustment, and the lowest is personal emotional adjustment. This study also describes the high level of college adjustment based on its dimensions. College adjustment berasal dari adjustment yang artinya penyesuaian mahasiswa dengan lingkungan perguruan tinggi. Cara mahasiswa menyesuaikan selama tahun pertama kuliah merupakan prediksi peristiwa kehidupan yang signifikan di kemudian hari dalam karir perguruan tinggi. Dalam college adjustment, terdapat empat dimensi, antara lain academic adjustment, social adjustment, personal emotional adjustment, dan goal commitment institutional attachment. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui gambaran umum college adjustment mahasiswa baru di masa pandemi Covid-19. Penelitian ini memiliki 345 partisipan mahasiswa baru dengan rentang usia antara 18 hingga 25 tahun yang berkuliah di perguruan tinggi di daerah Jakarta. Alat ukur yang digunakan adalah Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ). Berdasarkan hasil olah data yang dilakukan untuk menggambarkan college adjustment mahasiswa baru di masa pandemi Covid-19 dengan menggunakan metode deskriptif dan uji beda data demografi, didapatkan hasil bahwa college adjustment memiliki perbedaan pada jenis kelamin laki-laki maupun perempuan, serta tidak memiliki perbedaan pada jenis perguruan tinggi yang dipilih, usia, fakultas, dan tempat tinggal saat ini. Hasil penelitian ini juga dapat disimpulkan bahwa dimensi goal commitment institutional attachment memiliki nilai mean yang paling tinggi, disusul dengan social adjustment, academic adjustment, dan yang paling rendah adalah personal emotional adjustment. Penelitian ini juga menggambarkan tingkat tinggi rendahnya college adjustment berdasarkan dimensinya.


Author(s):  
Sara Connolly ◽  
David Oberleitner ◽  
Joseph Guarneri

Widespread investigations of the prevalence of experienced social isolation, and how social isolation, college adjustment and collegiate self-efficacy interact, have not been widely studied. Given the literature on each of these domains, it can be surmised that these factors all interact and impact first-year college students. As such, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between social isolation, rejection sensitivity, and collegiate self-efficacy with college adjustment.


2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-136
Author(s):  
Aude Villatte ◽  
Diane Marcotte ◽  
Alexandra Potvin

This study aimed to identify and rank the personal, family-related, social, and academic correlates of depressive symptoms in first-year college students. A questionnaire that included the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) was administered to 389 first-year college students (mean age = 18.9; SD = 3.38; 59.4% female). Eight variables contributed uniquely to the variance of depressive symptoms and were, in decreasing order of importance: (1) the absence of personal goals, (2) a high level of anxiety and (3) of dysfunctional thoughts regarding success, (4) a lack of emotional adjustment to college, (5) being female, (6) receiving little warmth and encouragement of autonomy from one’s mother and (7) from one’s father, and (8) being attracted to members of the opposite or both sexes. These results suggest that a multimodal intervention is required to support students’ mental health.  


NASPA Journal ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua S. Smith ◽  
Ellen C Wertlieb

First-year college students’ expectations about "what college is like" do not always align with their actual experiences. This study examined 31 first-year students’ social and academic expectations and compared those expectations with students' experiences at the middle and end of their first year of college. Paired t tests revealed that students' academic and social expectations did not align with their first-year experiences. Academic and social expectations/experiences were not statistically significant predictors of first-year academic achievement. However, students with unrealistic high social or academic expectations had lower first-year grade point averages (GPAs) than students with average or below-average expectations. Recommendations for increasing high school and college collaboration to assist students with the transition to college are included.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thuy-vy Thi Nguyen ◽  
Kaitlyn M. Werner ◽  
Bart Soenens

The present research examined the role of university students’ motivation for spending time alone in their adjustment to college life, as well as the parenting correlates of students’ healthy motivation for solitude. Two studies were conducted on first-year college students in the United States (n = 147) and Canada (n = 223). In Study 1, data was collected at three different time points, separated by two-week intervals. In Study 2, data was collected at two different time points, separated by a month. The results revealed that, for those who reported perceiving lower social belonging, approaching solitary time for autonomous reasons was linked to greater self-esteem (Study 1), and greater sense of relatedness to others and lower loneliness (Study 2). These findings suggest that endorsing a healthy motivation for solitude is not necessarily indicative of social ill-being. Additionally, students’ autonomous motivation for spending time alone was associated with having parents that are autonomy supportive and that promote a sense of independence.


Author(s):  
Weiqi Mu ◽  
Dongyun Zhu ◽  
Yanhong Wang ◽  
Fugui Li ◽  
Liyuan Ye ◽  
...  

First-year college students’ adaptation problems and related mental health have attracted researchers’ attention. The current research focuses on the depressive symptoms of first-year college students and aims to explore the relationship between the neuroticism trait and depressive symptoms, the mediating effect of addictive use of social media, and the moderating effect of psychological resilience. Three-wave longitudinal data from 1128 first-year students at a university in Fujian Province, China, were collected within three months of their enrollment. PROCESS macro for SPSS with bootstrapping was used to test the model. Results showed that the prevalence of moderate to severe severity of depressive symptoms in first-year students was 10.28% (T1) and 11.17% (T3). Addictive use of social media (T2) plays a moderated mediator role in the relationship between neuroticism (T1) and depressive symptoms (T3) of first-year students. Specifically, a low neuroticism individual does not necessarily have a less addictive use of social media. Psychological resilience (T1) moderated the above mediation. Implications for research and practice are discussed.


Author(s):  
Beverly G. Dyer ◽  
Daniel P. Nadler ◽  
Michael T. Miller

Female college students experience unique dimensions to their transition to college. Traditional orientation programming has begun to address the needs of female students, but these efforts have typically not provided the holistic attention deserving of this population. The current report was a case study of 605 female first-year college students, their perceptions of an orientation program based on the CAS Standards, and the differences between Multi-Ethnic and Caucasian females.


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