The Relationship Between Attachment, Self-Regulation, and Resilience in Undergraduate Students\u27 College Adjustment

Difficulty adjusting to college life is noted in nearly 20% of freshmen who fail to return to college. The purpose of this quantitative survey design study, grounded in attachment theory, was to investigate the best predictor (e.g., secure parental attachment, self-regulation, or resilience) of college adaptation, the combined contribution of the variables in predicting college adaptation, and whether a bivariate relationship existed between the variables and subcomponents of college adaptation. The Connor Davidson Resilience Scale Revised, Parental Attachment Questionnaire, Short Self-Regulation Questionnaire, and Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire were securely administered online to a sample of 68 full-time students from one university\u27s freshmen class. In a multiple regression analysis, the combination of variables accounted for nearly 58% of the variance in college adaptation, with self-regulation as the single best predictor. A series of Pearson correlations revealed significant large positive relationships between self-regulation, resilience, and each of the college adaptation subcomponents. Secure parental attachment had a significant large positive relationship with personal/emotional adaptation and a significant medium positive relationship with academic adaptation. Based on the results, it is recommended that self-regulation and resilience be investigated as mediators between attachment and adaptation to college. This research, while making an important contribution to the literature, contributes to positive social change by highlighting key components to college adaptation, thereby focusing efforts on strengthening these qualities in students