Factors Promoting Positive Adaptation and Resilience during the Transition to College

By Kevin A. Leary, Melissa E. DeRosier. 2012

92 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The transition to college can be a difficult time as students adjust to new social and academic demands while adapting to new living circumstances in a collegiate environment. The ability of students to cope with the stress of such a transition and display positive outcomes despite challenges has important implications for psychosocial well-being as well as academic success. The present study examined the relative impact of four domains that have been shown to promote resilience in the face of stress in order to determine the extent to which each factor predicted student stress independent of all other factors. First-year college students from four universities completed measures assessing their perceived level of stress as well as their social connectedness, self-care behaviors, cognitive style, and life skills. Results revealed that social support and cognitive styles characterized by optimism significantly and uniquely predicted lower stress among students. Findings are discussed in relation to the development of university-based programs to promote the skills and characteristics that are most likely to result in positive outcomes for students during the transition to college.

Subfields: Applied Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/78cb47fdbc5edbed772602a80c2c92e7f9e52639

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Applied Psychology

1. Stephen Morton
2. Peter Boman
3. Joshua C. Watson
4. A. Mergler

In Clinical Psychology

1. Stephen Morton
2. S. Lipson
3. Peter Boman
4. J. Posselt
5. Joshua C. Watson
6. A. Mergler

In Social Psychology

1. Stephen Morton
2. S. Lipson
3. Peter Boman
4. J. Posselt
5. A. Mergler

Citations in the corpus

• Managing the Transition: The Role of Optimism and Self-Efficacy for First-Year Australian University Students (2014, background): “Recently, Leary and DeRosier (2012) examined factors that promote resilience and positive adaptation in 120 first-year university students in America.”
• Resilience, Academic Self-Concept, and College Adjustment Among First-Year Students (2018, background): “Furthermore, researchers have identified intrapersonal resilience and resilience-promoting factors as elements contributing to first-year students’ successful adjustment to an increasingly stressful college environment (Hartley, 2011; Leary & DeRosier, 2012).”
• Competition, Anxiety, and Depression in the College Classroom: Variations by Student Identity and Field of Study (2016, background): “Firstyear experience programs have primarily focused on practical and academic (e.g., course scheduling) aspects of college life (Hunter, 2006; Padgett & Keup, 2011), with minimal emphasis on stress, coping, or resilience (Leary & DeRosier, 2012).”