The Relationship Between Family Dynamics And Students' Adaptation To College

Objective: To explore the effects of family dynamic factors on students' adaptation process and outcome.Methods: 1. Psychological well-being and adaptation of the students were evaluated twice when they began their university life and then when they entered into the second semester. Baseline survey: 5208 students at an university in Shanghai, who were enrolled as freshmen for Autumn Semester in 2005, were examined with PHI (Psychological Health Inventory), Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16-PF) . According to the cut-off value of PHI, 456 of them were abnormal in mental health. 2. Follow-up controlled survey in Spring Semester of 2006: 113 from PHI-abnormal group and 250 normal students were examined with CSAS (College Student Adjustment Scale), Self-rating Scale of Systemic Family Dynamics (SSFD), and a self-made questionnaire was used to assess the general social-demographic variables. 3. Qualitative approach: Based on the results of quantitative study, 5 students were selected for Semi-structured interviews on family dynamics and adaptation. 4. Statistical approaches, such as t test,ANOVA analysis,Pearson's correlation and so on, were employed to analyze the data according to the characteristic of the distribution of data. The statistical software used throughout the analysis was SPSS12.0.Results: 1. 456 of students were evaluated with PHI as having mental health problems, the rate of persons with mental health problems were 8.78%. Regarding the evaluation results of 16—PF, there were differences between genders and as well between the PHI-abnormal group and PHI-normal group in most dimensions of 16-PF. 2. There were gender differences, Urban-rural difference, and parents' education in Disease Conception dimensions of family dynamics. There were gender differences, urban-rural difference, and education of parents in Family Atmosphere and System Logic dimensions of family dynamics, and the scores of students for Arts for these 2 dimensions were significantly higher than that of students for sciences(P<0.001). But there was no significant difference in gender, vocations of parents, and family type as one-child family. 3. Adaptation to college was assessed with CSAS. Adaptation difficulty was operationally defined according to the cut-off scores of various sub-scales derived from the Chinese norm for undergraduates. 32 were checked among PHI-abnormal group, and the rate of adaptation difficulty is 28.31%; 19 were checked among PHI-normal group, and the rate of adaptation difficulty is 7.60%. Mean score of male students was significantly lower than the one of female students. Mean scores of both the total scale and sub-scales of the students from Shanghai was higher than the one of the students from other provinces in their adaptation to college. The scores of global adaptation to college were different among 3 groups of students whose parents have respectively low, middle and high education levels. 4. Variables of Family dynamics, as measured by the Self-rating Scale of Systemic Family Dynamics, were found be correlated with adaptation to college. Results indicated that high Individuation was significantly correlated with good adjustment to college as measured by the CSAS scale (R=0.33, P<0.05) . Additionally, Individuation and System Logic dimensions of family dynamics are related to interpersonal adjustment to college (R—0.40, P<0.01; R=-0.36, P<0.05) . Family Atmosphere was correlated with Career adaptation to college (R=-0.42, P<0.01) , and Disease Conception was related to the emotional adaptation to college (R=0.32, P<0.05) . 5. During the half-year interval between baseline survey and follow-up controlled survey, the directions of changes in adaptation, measured according to differences of results between 2 evaluations, were found to be related to the scores of 3 dimensions of family dynamics except Disease Conception. 6. Results of qualitative study: students' leaving home affected both students and their families strongly. Both sides, the students and their parents, had to readjust themselves to the new life. All the interviewed students agreed that they had got more freedom than before. Mostly, mothers involved emotional communications with their children much more than fathers. Students who had higher scores in Disease Conception showed severe conduct problems such as internet-addiction. Dreams the parents have not realized affected their children's adaptation to college obviously. All of the interviewed students reported they had been struggling to cope with the radical transition of life and they needed time for such a process of adjustment. Conclusion:1. Mental Health and Adaptation to College, were found be correlated with Personality. Female college students show better global adaptation than male students, and the students from Shanghai shows better adaptation than the students from other provinces. Parents' education effects global adaptation to college, which shows dipolar direction. If parents' education was high, their children had better adaptation at university, but if parents' education level was on the middle level, their children's adaptation was the best. 2. Financial condition and parents education level might have influenced the development of the conception of diseases. It was found that the students whose parents have lower education and lower income and live in rural areas tended to attribute their difficulties and diseases to outside uncontrollable reasons. The students whose parents live in urban areas and have better financial condition and middle education level were the ones who perceived their difficulties and diseases as conditions which they themselves should change though own efforts. The characters of family dynamics affect adaptation process and result. The higher the family members' individuation was, the better the global adaptation to college, and individuation affected Interpersonal adaptation at most. Results also showed the students' Interpersonal adaptation was related to the Systemic Logic pattern of their families, i.e., the more the family use "not only...but also...logic", the more tolerant and more multiple-directional by viewing the world and by making decisions, the better they felt general satisfaction with their interpersonal relations. Similarly, the more hostile and boring the Family Atmosphere was, the worse the Career adjustment was. The more the students perceived their difficulties and diseases as conditions without possibility to change by their own efforts, the better their emotional adaptation. 3. This study suggests that it is important to consider the family dynamics when we intervene students' problems relating to the adaptation to college.