Emotional, Social and Academic Adaptation To College: Differences in Student Adaptation

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to determine whether the gender, grade and the change of place of residenceduring the college generate differences in the modalities of student adaptation. Adaptation to college isobserved through three dimensions of adaptation: emotional, social and academic. The variables areoperationalized through the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ) and Sociodemographic Questionnaire. The study is conducted on a sample of 811 undergraduate students (510female and 301 male). MANOVA's results show that gender have a significant effect on studentadaptation: F (3,787) = 8.61, p <.001, and grade also: F (9,1915.50) = 6.13, p <.001. The magnitude ofthe impact of the full categorization on the overall student adjustment is very modest: about 3% varianceis explained (IC 1-6%). The effect of the grade is also marginal, explaining about 2% of the variance ofthe adaptation (IC 1-4%). The results of a one-way ANOVA test show that male students are more emotionally adapted thanfemale students F (1.806) = 9.13, p = .003, ω2 = .01, while no statisticallysignificant differences are found in academic and social adaptation.Significant differences in academicadaptation regarding the grade are detected: F (3.803) = 8.81, p <.001, with a small effect size ω2 = .03.Significant differences exist in the aspect of social adaptation: F (3,803) = 6.69, p <.001, ω2 = .02 withan explanation of about 2% of differences in social adaptation.Tukey's subsequent comparisons show that students of the first grade have a significantly higher leve of academic adaptation than students of the second grade: t (3,803) = 3.31, p = .005; as well as students of the third grade: t (3,803) = 4.81, p <.001. Significant differences in the aspects of adaptation between higher grades are not detected.