Psychological Factors Contributing to College Adjustment in First Year Students

1. Results Psychological Factors Contributing to College Adjustment in First Year Students Klaudia Zoto and MaryAnn Bush Nazareth College Discussion Abstract First year adjustment to college has been shown to improve retention and provide for a more successful college experience (Gerdes & Mallinckrodt,1994). In an extension of a previous study (Bush & Fangio, 2012) this study investigated the impact of positive reframing as an additional factor in the prediction of college adjustment. The model produced an adjusted R2 of .81 (F=14.17, p<.001). A linear multiple regression was performed using the variables of perceived stress, the subscale of Fun- Loving on the Adult Playfulness Scale, a measure of the coping strategy of positive reframing, and scores on the Student Life Events Scale as predictors of college adjustment in first year college students. The model produced an adjusted R2 of .81 [F (4,13) = 14.17, p < .001]. The four variables accounted for 81 percent of the variance reported in college adjustment in this sample of college freshmen. Perceived stress (b = -.35, t= -2.26, p=.04) and stress producing life events (b=-.34 t=-2.26, p=.04)were shown to have a negative impact on college adjustment. Fun Loving Playfulness (b = .41, t = 2.7, p = .017) and Positive Reframing (b=.30, t=2.07, p=.059) were positively related to college adjustment.The life events scale was shown to be correlated with levels of perceived stress (r=.46, p=.05). The coping strategy of Positive Reframing was also shown to be correlated with the fun-loving subscale of Adult Playfulness (r=.51, p=.028). Most interventions aimed at improving the level of adjustment to college focus on increasing the students control over negative emotional states. (Jonhson, Gans, Kerr & LaValle, 2010). Stress and time management as well as strategies to increase coping skills are often seen as appropriate interventions. Little attention has been given to strategies that focus more on the creation of positive emotional states rather than on decreasing negative emotional states. Proyer (2011) suggests that strategies that help to foster playfulness, especially spontaneous and creative aspects of play, may not only increase student performance on academic tasks but also act to broaden their psychological, social and intellectual resources. Future research might be aimed at creating strategies to increase positive emotions through coping strategies aimed at reframing stressfull experiences more positively in first year college students. The results of this study replicate the earlier finding (Bush & Fangio, 2012) of the predictive relationship of perceived stress on college adjustment. In this study, the factor of Positive Reframing as a coping mechanism was confirmed as adding to the prediction of College Adjustment. Future research is planned to provide training in positive reframing to entering students in an attempt to increase student control over positive emotions and help them to regulate the negative impact of perceived stress on adjustment to college. Introduction Adjustment to the first year of college comes with many challenges. Previous research has demonstrated that student perceived stress is negatively correlated with college adjustment (Bush & Fangio, 2012). The same study found that a playful attitude is positively correlated with adjustment. Fredrickson (2001) suggested that playfulness “can transform people for the better, making them more optimistic, resilient and socially connected”. Proyer(2011) defined playfulness as “the predisposition to frame (or reframe) a situation in such away as to provide oneself (and possibly others) with amusement, humor, and/or entertainment”. Such a definition suggests that a coping strategy of positively reframing perceived stress may help to ameliorate the negative impact of perceived stress on first year college adjustment. It is suggested that such positive emotional states may actually help to moderate the cognitive narrowing associated with negative emotional states (Fredrickson & Levenson, 1998). One might hypothesize that during times of high perceived stress that adopting a playful attitude and thereby reframing the situation to increase positive emotional states, may increase the adaptive process and result in better adjustment by broadening one’s thinking and coping resources. References Bush, M.F. and Fangio, M. (2012) Playing Your Way to College Adjustment, Eastern Psychological Association, Pittsburgh, PA. Carver, C. S. (1997). You Want to Measure Coping But Your Protocol’s Too Long: Consider the Brief COPE. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 4(1), 92-100. Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24, 385-396. Feldt, R. C. (2008) Development of a Brief Measure of College Stress: The College Student Stress Scale. Psychological Reports, Vol 102, 855-860. Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56(3), 218-226. Fredrickson, B. L., & Levenson, R. W. (1998). Positive emotions speed recovery from the cardiovascular sequelae of negative emotions. Cognition and Emotion, 12, 191-220. Gerdes, H. & Mallinckrodt, B. (1994). Emotional, social, and academic adjustment of college students: A longitudinal study of retention. Journal of Counseling & Development, Vol 72(3), pp. 281-288. Glynn, M. A., & Webster, J. (1992). The adult playfulness scale: an initial assessment. Psychological Reports, 71(1), 83-1033. Johnson, K., Gans, S., Kerr, S.,& LaValle,W. (2010). Managing the Transition to College: Family functioning, Emotion Coping, and Adjustment in Emerging Adulthood. Journal of College Student Development, 51,(6), 607-621. Pennebaker, J.W., Colder, M., & Sharp, L.K. (1990). Accelerating the coping process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 528-537. Proyer, René T. (2011) Being Playful and Smart? The relations of adult playfulness with psychometric and self estimated intelligence and academic performance. Learning and Individual Differences, Vol 21(4),. pp. 463-467. Procedure Figure 1. Relationship Between College Adjustment and Perceived Stress. First year undergraduate students completed the Adult Playfulness Scale (Glynn & Webster, 1992) to assess the participant’s level of playfulness. To examine the participant’s perceived stress level, a Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, Kamarck & Mermelstein, 1983) was used. This scale consisted of ten questions that asked how often the individual felt certain feelings during the last month. To measure college adjustment, the College Adjustment Test (Pennebaker, Colder, & Sharp, 1990) was used. This test consisted of nineteen statements in which the participants were asked to what degree in the last week they have had certain feelings that were stated. For example, “missed their parents” or “worried about the way you look.” The participants were asked to answer the questions on a seven-point scale ranging from 1, “not at all” to 7, “a great deal.” Participants also completed an adaptation of the Holmes and Rahe (Feldt, 2008) for college students in order to verify the relationship of real life stressors with perceived stress and the Brief COPE (Carver, 1997) to assess the potential contribution of positive coping strategies on College Adjustment. Figure 2. Relationship between college adjustment and Adult Playfulness. Mbush4@naz.edu