Gender differences in academic buoyancy among first-year undergraduate university students

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First-year students at universities continue to experience adjustment challenges which are an indication of low academic buoyancy. Academic buoyancy is a student’s ability to succeed amidst academic difficulties and setbacks in academic settings. This study examined the gender differences in academic buoyancy among first-year undergraduate students in one public university in western Kenya. Within the positivist research paradigm, the study adopted a cross-sectional survey research design. The sample size of the study comprised 213 first-year students, selected using a simple random sampling method. The Academic Buoyancy Scale was used to collect data. An independent samples t-test was used to test the hypothesis. The results indicate that there is a statistically significant difference in the academic buoyancy scores for males and females [t (211) = -5.178, p <.001], but the magnitude of the differences in the mean was moderate (eta squared=.113). Thus, the male first-year students registered comparatively higher academic buoyancy than their female counterparts. This implies that male students have better coping mechanisms for environmental stressors at the university as compared to their female counterparts. The study recommends that counselling staff at universities should develop gendered orientation programmes to enhance the academic buoyancy of female first-year students. Moreover, universities should develop more focused academic orientation and nurturing among all first-year students to uplift academic buoyancy in all the courses for which they are registered.