Academic and social predictors of college adjustment among first-year students: Do high school friendships make a difference

The literature on first-year students transitioning to college is quite extensive, and researchers have identified a number of factors which influence adjustment. Empirical studies have shown that not only is cognitive ability important for a student to succeed in college but social support from family, maintenance of precollege friendships, integration into the college social environment, self-efficacy beliefs, and personality characteristics also play a role. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the role of precollege friendships during the transition and the value of such relationships in the prediction of adjustment to college as measured by academic performance, academic adjustment, and psychological distress.; The participants in this study were 127 first-year undergraduate students (54 males, 73 females) ages 18 to 20 years attending a state university in Western Pennsylvania. Students completed assessment packets which included a demographics questionnaire, the Academic Self-Efficacy Scale, Perceived Social Support-Family, two Friendsickness Scales (current and initial), and the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire. Participants were also asked to complete and sign a release of information form granting the researcher permission to obtain SAT and GPA information from the university's computerized records.; Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted and revealed that different factors were predictive of different adjustment criteria. The current findings were consistent with previous research in that they revealed the role of gender, SAT scores, and academic adjustment in the prediction of college GPA. Academic self-efficacy emerged as the only significant predictor of academic adjustment. Perceived social support from family was the most valuable predictor of personal-emotional adjustment; however, academic self-efficacy was also a significant predictor for this variable. Both friendsickness and academic self-efficacy emerged as significant predictors for social adjustment and institutional attachment, the retention-related criteria used in the current study. An interaction emerged between gender and academic self-efficacy for both of these criteria, suggesting that social adjustment and institutional attachment were not based on the same factors for male students as they were for female students.