Social Support And Adjustment To University Life In Ecuadorian Students

Abstract

Adjustment to university life is a transition process in which the student must face several challenges related to personal, emotional, academic and motivational aspects. In this context, the social support that the university environment provides is fundamental for the development of a correct adaptation. The objective of this research is to describe the relationship between different types of perceived social support and the dimensions of adjustment to university life. This is a non-experimental design investigation, cross-sectional with correlational scope. A census was carried out to 1374 students of the first two semesters of five Schools in the academic period 2017-2018 at the Universidad Técnica del Norte, to which a University Life Questionnaire. Chilean adaptation was applied. The valid sample was 907 and the pearson correlation coefficient was used. The results showed that the different dimensions presented an average level of correlation, the highest correlation coefficient with r =, 515 corresponds to the dimensions of social adjustment and peer support. The main conclusion is that the dimensions of academic adjustment and social adjustment have a higher level of correlation with all types of support; while the institutional adjustment dimension shows a weak level of association with the different types of support.

Keywords: Adaptationsocial supportstudentsuniversity adjustment

Introduction

Adjustment to university life is considered to be the process of transition of young people from secondary school towards higher education and it demands multiple adaptations in different areas of life (Baker & Siryk, 1986). University life is very different from what the student was used to handle, this stage demands greater autonomy and independence from the student both to organize their time to study as well as their leisure time; moreover, the contact of the academic institution with the parents is null, the student must learn to self-handle conflicts, solve problems, and, in some cases, they must leave their family and migrate to other regions of the country or abroad. These situations force them to learn to deal with domestic activities, payment of bills, to face loneliness and cultural change. While these challenges can be tackled in a positive way, they can also have a negative physical, emotional, and psychological impact on the student (Thurber & Walton, 2012).

Baker & Siryk (1984) mention that the adjustment process to university life includes dimensions such as emotional adjustment, social adjustment, academic adjustment and institutional adjustment. Being multifactorial, there are different aspects that can contribute or hinder this process, one of these aspects is social support. Different studies have described social support as a protective factor and predictor of emotional well-being and mental health (Barra Almagia, 2012; Brannan, Biswas-Diener, Mohr, Mortazavi, & Stein, 2013; Cohen, 2004; Martínez-López et al., 2014; Sacramento Zanini, Verolla-Moura, & Pinheiro de Abreu, 2009).

Social support is defined in several ways, for example: Zhou, Zhu, Zhang, & Cai (2013) consider that it refers to the perception of having people who care about us, care about our needs, love us, include us in different aspects of life and protect us; Gray, Vitak, Easton, & Ellison (2013) mention that social support is a set of resources provided to a person that include economic support, emotional support and instrumental support.

There are different sources that can provide support in the process of transition to university life. Rueger, Malecki, & Demaray (2010) mention three primary sources: peer support, parent / family support and support from others. However, the perception of effectiveness of the support provided and the way one seeks such support vary accordingly to factors such as culture, age and sex (Brannan et al., 2013).

Problem Statement

University desertion is a widespread problem, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO, in Latin America, the dropout rate is around 40% (La deserción universitaria bordea el 40%., 2016). In 2010, in Latin America and the Caribbean, one in ten young people between 25 and 29 years of age had completed university education (UNESCO, 2013). Several studies indicate that the university dropout occurs in the first semesters of university (Martínez et al., 2014), many of them due to factors associated with the difficulties of adapting to the challenges of such life (Ames et al., 2014; Buchanan, Ljungdahl, & Maher, 2015). Some of the main variables associated with the success of the adjustment process is social support (Chavoshi, Wintre, Dentakos, & Wright, 2017; English, Davis, Wei, & Gross, 2017; Páramo Fernández, Araújo, Tinajero Vacas, Almeida, & Rodríguez González, 2017; Rahat & Ilhan, 2016).

In Ecuador, according to the National Secretariat of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation SENESCYT, in 2012, the dropout rate was 50%, for the year 2014, of more than 400,000 students enrolled in public and co-financed universities, 26% left the chosen career in the first semesters (El 26% de universitarios se retiró en los primeros años, 2016). Despite the high dropout rates in the Country, research and proposals for intervention and prevention around the problem and its possible causes are scarce.

Research Questions

For the present study, the following research questions were proposed:

• Is there a relationship between the different types of perceived social support and the dimensions of adjustment to university life?

• If so, what is the level of relationship between the different types of perceived social support and the dimensions of adjustment to university life?

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study is to describe the relationship between the different types of perceived social support and the dimensions of adjustment to university life.

Research Methods

The design of the present investigation is non-experimental, cross-sectional, with a correlational scope.

Findings

The purpose of the research was to describe the relationship between the different dimensions of adjustment to university life (academic adjustment, social adjustment, emotional adjustment, institutional adjustment) and the different types of social support (peer support, family support, support from others). Table 1 shows the correlations between the aforementioned variables, in which a positive correlation was found, with a level of association between the variables academic adjustment and support from others, also, between social adjustment and the three types of support. Emotional and institutional adjustment variables showed correlation with all types of support; while the academic adjustment variable showed a low level of association with family support and peer support.

In addition, it was decided to calculate the correlations by school, finding that FACAE, FECYT, FICAYA and the School of Health Sciences showed a positive correlation (p <0.01) between the different adjustment dimensions and the different types of support; in FICA, a positive correlation was found (p <0.01) between the social adjustment dimension and the three types of social support, and the academic adjustment dimension with family support (p <0.05). On the other hand, the only school that showed no correlation between the dimensions of academic adjustment, social support and support from others, emotional adjustment, institutional adjustment and the three types of social support, was FICA as shown in Table 02 .

Conclusion

Considering the relationship between the variables of social support and adjustment to university life and, taking into account that an aspect related to dropout and academic failure is university adjustment, it becomes important to generate and review, within higher academic institutions, programs aimed at the detection, strengthening and counseling in the management of difficulties associated with the transition to university life, preventing, not only desertion, but also promoting the emotional and physical well-being of young people.

Contributing to the development of preventive and intervention programs that take into account the cultural and sociodemographic factors of our students, requires more investment for research in this area.

Acknowledgments

This study is part of the research project FONDECYT 1161502 Explanatory model of the permanence and abandonment of university studies, based on cognitive motivational processes Main Researcher A. Diaz Mujica and was developed thanks to the support and financing provided by the Universidad Técnica del Norte – Ecuador.

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