“If I Hadn’t Had that Support System, I Think I Would Have Dropped Out by Now”: Parental Support in College and its Implications for Student Adjustment

Understanding college students’ perceptions of parental support and its impact on student adjustment have important implications for maximizing retention rates within higher education institutions. College students ( N = 53) participated in qualitative interviews focused on students’ perceptions of mothers’ and fathers’ support during college and its impact on college adjustment. Holistic coding interviews indicated three different classifications of parents based on levels of support: supportive, ambivalent, and unsupportive. Students indicated that their parents continued to be the main source of support and a key factor that supports their adjustment during the college years. In contrast, students who did not receive such support expressed having difficulties continuing working toward their degree. Students’ narratives also indicated that mothers and fathers provided support in different ways. These findings have important implications for practice, and in particular how high education institutions can promote adjustment and retention rates by encouraging parental engagement.

Connecting with others: Dispositional and situational relatedness during the college transition

The college transition involves social challenges for students, including concerns about distance from family and hometown friends, and pressure to build a new social network on campus. Students who are successfully navigating these social challenges should be better adjusted on campus and feel more satisfied with the direction of their lives. We measured two expressions of relatedness in incoming, central US students’ ( N = 244; M age = 18.1 years; 78.6% women) autobiographical recollections of the college transition: (a) dispositional relatedness (DR) and tendencies to emphasize motivations for connecting with others; and (b) situational relatedness (SR) and reflections on successes and challenges within specific relationship domains. We hypothesized that both expressions of relatedness would be positively and distinctly associated with longitudinal reports of college adjustment (i.e., belonging) and subjective well-being (i.e., life satisfaction). We also hypothesized that changes in college adjustment would mediate associations between expressions of relatedness and well-being. Findings broadly supported expectations. Each expression of relatedness robustly predicted better student outcomes longitudinally. Further, improvements in college belonging and decreases in homesickness mediated the ties between situational relatedness and subjective well-being. We discuss the implications of these findings for the college transition and student support services.