Adjustment to University: Investigating the Effect of Emotional-Cognitive Predictors on Students’ Transition to Higher Education

Attending university is acknowledged as a major life transition during which students experience a range of demands and trials, often for the first time and attempting to understand why many fail to thrive is a key area of concern and research. This study used multiple regressions to predict the effect of hope, coping strategies and levels of flourishing on the adjustment to university of 81 first year UK and international students undertaking a variety of courses at the University of Chester’s Foundation School. Findings from this study suggest a significant and positive relationship between students’ active coping strategies and their overall university adjustment, academic adjustment, social adjustment and personal-emotional adjustment though not to students’ attachment to the institution. It was also found that maladaptive coping had a significant negative effect on student adjustment. Hope Agency showed correlations to academic and social adjustment but was subsumed by Coping as a predictor, whilst Hope Pathways and Flourishing showed no significant effect on adjustment