What Predicts Adjustment Among College Students? A Longitudinal Panel Study

Objective: Researchers have previously reported that law students and medical students experience significant distress during their first year. The authors suspected that freshmen undergraduates might experience similar distress in their transition to college. Participants: They surveyed 242 undergraduate freshmen at the beginning and end of their first year. Methods: The authors asked participants about their physical health, alcohol use and smoking habits, stress levels, perfectionism, self-esteem, coping tactics, optimism, extroversion, and psychological adaptation to college. Results: Data replicated the declines reported in law and medical students' psychological and physical health. Negative coping tactics and perfectionism predicted poorer physical health and alcohol use at the end of the year; however, optimism and self-esteem predicted better physical and psychological outcomes. Conclusion: Future researchers should investigate steps that college administrators can take to help to alleviate some of these problems, such as offering workshops on stress relief to incoming freshmen.