Effects of Personality Traits, Social Support and Self-Efficacy on Predicting University Adjustment

The current study examined the relationship between personality traits, social support perceptions, academic self-efficacy and the adjustment to university. Participants were 992 university students (615 [62%] female, 377 [38%]) male. Results showed that social support, conscientiousness, extraversion and at low levels agreeableness predicted friendship adjustment, while academic self-efficacy and conscientiousness predicted academic adjustment. Academic self-efficacy, social support, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness traits were determined to affect prediction of general adjustment to university. The significance and limitations of the results are discussed.

Predicting University Adjustment from Coping-Styles, Self-Esteem, Self-Efficacy, and Personality: Findings from a Survey in a Sample of Italian Students

Starting university life requires that students learn to cope with several personal, academic, and social challenges. A wide array of variables affects how students adjust to university life. This study was aimed to investigate which factors among coping styles, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and personality traits (i.e., diligence, relational availability, mental flexibility, activity, and emotional stability) best predicted the levels of university adjustment in a sample of university freshmen (N = 204, 63% women). Data were collected using self-report instruments. Multiple regressions analyses were conducted to identify the most significant predictors of adjustment to college. Our findings reported that self-efficacy, task-, and emotion-oriented coping were the most significant predictors, together with relational availability and mental flexibility. These findings might improve the growing knowledge concerning university adjustment, supporting main previous research. The observed relationships between university adjustment and the measured variables suggest intriguing considerations about the importance for schools and universities of providing interventions for students that aim to develop and strengthen the investigated personality facets, reducing withdrawal, behavioral and/or mental disengagement, and promoting academic achievement and success.

Identity processes and eating disorder symptoms during university adjustment: a cross-sectional study

Background Young people with eating disorders (EDs) and ED symptoms are at risk during university adjustment, suggesting a need to protect their health. The social identity approach proposes that people’s social connections – and the identity-related behaviour they derive from them – are important for promoting positive health outcomes. However, there is a limited understanding as to how meaningful everyday connections, supported by affiliative identities, may act to reduce ED symptoms during a life transition. Methods Two hundred eighty-one first year university students with an ED or ED symptoms completed an online survey during the first month of university. Participants completed self-reported measures of affiliative identity, social support, injunctive norms and ED symptoms. Path analysis was used to test a hypothesised mediated model, whereby affiliative identity has a significant indirect relation with ED symptoms via social support and injunctive norms. Results Results support the hypothesised model. We show that affiliative identity predicts lower self-reported ED symptoms, because of its relation with social support and injunctive norms. Conclusions The findings imply that affiliative identities have a positive impact on ED symptoms during university adjustment, because the social support derived from affiliative identity is associated with how people perceive norms around disordered eating. Our discussion emphasises the possibility of identity processes being a social cure for those at risk of ED symptoms.

Why Some Students Adjust Easily While Others Can Not? Stress and Adjustment to University: Personality as Moderator

Research has demonstrated consistently that personality and perceived stress, independently, are essential factors for university adjustment among university freshmen; however, little is known about the associations between personality, perceived stress, and adjustment together. Our primary goal was to explore the predictive utility of perceived stress for explaining university adjustment among university freshmen ( N = 290). We also tested the moderating role of personality traits and this research was embedded within a Big Five model of personality including the sixth trait for Turkish context, ‘Negative Valence’. Results addressed that only conscientiousness and negative valence moderated the perceived stress and adjustment association. Students high on negative valence and/or conscientiousness tended to experience the detrimental effect of perceived stress on university adjustment more due to their personality. These results suggested that personality might be an important factor to include in adjustment fostering interventions for freshmen at universities.

The prediction of university adjustment in Turkish late adolescents through Five Factor Personality dimensions

The aim of this study was to to analyze the relationship between the big five personality traits and adjustment to university by examining the extent to which the self-assessment of Turkish adolescents personality traits predict their adjustment to university. The study group consisted of 168 students: 101 females and 67 males. The study data was collected using The Adjustment to University Life Scale and the Adjective-Based Personality Test (ABPT). The findings of this study revealed that personal adjustment and academic adjustment predicts emotional instability/neuroticism and conscientiousness in a meaningful way. Also, social adjustment predicts agreeableness in a meaningful way. A number of recommendations were then presented based on our study’s findings.

University Readiness and University Adjustment: Lived Experience of First-generation University Students

The study purpose is to explore the relationship between university readiness and university adjustment of first-generation students. Students enter university with dreams and motivation after entering university the first challenge is to adjust in the university environment. University readiness directly linked and influenced the university adjustment of the students. Thus, the major objectives of the research are: to know the university readiness of first-generation university students and to access how first-generation university students in step to the university life. For the purpose of data collection, a self-administered well-structured questionnaire was developed and used. The COVID-19 pandemic restricted the movement of the individuals and the academic institutions remained close that’s why the method of online survey was adopted to collect data in the second half of year 2020. In total, 405 first-generation university students’ responses were collected. Results show that first-generation students were less prepared to enter the university. The researcher found a significant relationship between university readiness and university adjustment. It was also found that majority of the first-generation university students were less prepared to enter the university and feel themselves miss adjustment with university environment.