scholarly journals Happiness among first-year students at a comprehensive tertiary institution: An exploratory study

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 467-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marinda Pretorius ◽  
Derick Blaauw
Keyword(s):  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Well Being ◽  
First Year ◽  
Positive Contribution ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Tertiary Institution ◽  
Negative Contribution ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Learning ◽  
The University

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.

scholarly journals Features of Adaptation of Non-Resident Students to the University Learning Environment

2020 ◽  
pp. 53-58
Author(s):  
Olga Viktorovna Bodenova ◽  
Lyudmila Pavlovna Vlasova
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
First Year ◽  
Adaptation Period ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
State University ◽  
Student Survey ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Resident Students ◽  
New Type ◽  
The University

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.

scholarly journals Subjective well-being of students enrolled in different fields of study

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-38
Author(s):  
Anna Gennad'evna Samohvalova ◽  
Elena Viktorovna Tikhomirova ◽  
Oksana Nikolaevna Vishnevskaya ◽  
Natalia Sergeevna Shipova
Keyword(s):  
Satisfaction With Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
First Year ◽  
Subjective Perception ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
State University ◽  
Psychological Well Being ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Degree Of Satisfaction ◽  
The University

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.

scholarly journals Veiledningssamtale for første års studenter: Et innspill til praksisnærhet og studiekvalitet

2020 ◽  
pp. 67-79
Author(s):  
Anne-Lise With
Keyword(s):  
Career Guidance ◽  
Well Being ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Study Programme ◽  
Quality In Higher Education ◽  
University Of Oslo ◽  
The University ◽  
Shed Light

This chapter deals with counselling for first-year students as a way to strengthen motivation and mastery. Based on the model ForVei – preparatory counselling, it is argued for the relevance of the counselling conversation as a part of follow-up and study programme quality in higher education and the time of mass education. ForVei is based on the basic values MSHRL – Met, Seen, Heard, Respected, Equal, which is central to the way the conversation is conducted. It is the student’s motivation, mastery and well-being that are the main focus of ForVei, which is now practiced at several universities in Norway, such as the University of Oslo and Nord University. The chapter contains examples from our own research project on ForVei – counselling at INN University, where career guidance is a theme, as well. In the perspective of the student’s motivation and experience, counselling and learning theory are used, among others, with Vance Peavy’s constructivist Socio-Dynamic Counselling and Mark S. Savicka’s concept of self-efficacy. The latter, for example, helps to shed light on differences in self-perception and belief in one’s own resources and abilities. The chapter deals with these and other topics in light of study programme quality and ForVei – counselling for first-year students.

scholarly journals Coping Strategies and Accentuations of Personality Traits in First-Year Students with Different Levels of Subjective Well-Being

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 1040-1049
Author(s):  
E. F. Yashchenko ◽  
O. V. Lazorak
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Coping Strategies ◽  
Research University ◽  
Well Being ◽  
First Year ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
State University ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Different Levels

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.

scholarly journals THE PSYCHOLOGICAL FEATURES OF ADAPTATION IN FIRST-YEAR UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-53
Author(s):  
Aleksandr Viktorovich Antonovskii ◽  
Elena Vladimirovna Balakshina ◽  
Svetlana Igorevna Filippchenkova
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Well Being ◽  
First Year ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
University Environment ◽  
First Year University ◽  
Psychological Features

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.

scholarly journals Subjective well-being among first-year university students: A two-wave prospective study in Flanders, Belgium

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
David De Coninck ◽  
Koen Matthijs ◽  
Patrick Luyten
Keyword(s):  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Self Report ◽  
First Year ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Start Time ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Parental Relationship ◽  
Child Relationship

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.

Refining Contrapuntal Pedagogy: Reflections on Teaching Warsan Shire’s “Home” and W.H. Auden’s “Refugee Blues” to First-Year Students

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bridget Grogan
Keyword(s):  
Racial Identity ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Poetic Voice ◽  
Teaching Poetry ◽  
Approach To Teaching ◽  
The University ◽  
The Way

This article reports on and discusses the experience of a contrapuntal approach to teaching poetry, explored during 2016 and 2017 in a series of introductory poetry lectures in the English 1 course at the University of Johannesburg. Drawing together two poems—Warsan Shire’s “Home” and W.H. Auden’s “Refugee Blues”—in a week of teaching in each year provided an opportunity for a comparison that encouraged students’ observations on poetic voice, racial identity, transhistorical and transcultural human experience, trauma and empathy. It also provided an opportunity to reflect on teaching practice within the context of decoloniality and to acknowledge the need for ongoing change and review in relation to it. In describing the contrapuntal teaching and study of these poems, and the different methods employed in the respective years of teaching them, I tentatively suggest that canonical Western and contemporary postcolonial poems may reflect on each other in unique and transformative ways. I further posit that poets and poems that engage students may open the way into initially “less relevant” yet ultimately rewarding poems, while remaining important objects of study in themselves.

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