Female students' adjustment to college: An investigation of psychosocial factors

Students' transition, adjustment, and retention in college has been of interest and researched for many years within higher education literature. Many research studies using adjustment models either focus on students' adjustment generally, or discuss sex differences between men and women, but do not account for women's adjustment directly. The omission of women's experiences from the literature base formed the basis of the current study. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore women's psychosocial adjustment to college.; Two gaps were identified within the current literature base regarding students' adjustment to campus. First, women's adjustment to campus has been largely neglected within the current literature. Although many studies include women within the sample, women's issues were not discussed directly, and in some instances, majority women samples were cited as a detriment to the study. Second, the sparse literature pertaining to women's adjustment, which was qualitative, fails to consider the combination of psychological, social, and institutional influences to their adjustment.; To address these issues, four questions guided the current study: What social factors contribute to women's adjustment to college? Next, what self-belief factors affect women's adjustment to college? Third, what institutional factors affect women's adjustment to college? Last, which sociological, self-belief, and institutional category predicts each adjustment measure?; Several significant findings were indicated for this study. It was found that frequent job and family responsibilities, roommate difficulties, household duties, and non-participation in extra-curricular activities related to women's poor adjustment. In addition, women's increased drive to achieve, emotional health, and their expectations not to transfer to another institution, change majors, or career path, and their satisfaction with various institutional processes and services related to positive adjustment. Furthermore, differences in women's academic ability and intellectual self-confidence also related significantly to poor adjustment. Women who were satisfied with their overall experience, sense of community among students, opportunities for community service, and quality of instruction also experienced increased campus adjustment. In addition, women who felt increased satisfaction for the sense of community among students, amount of contact with faculty, their quality of instruction, and potential opportunities for community service indicated feeling safe but perhaps homesick.