Individual differences, social support and coping with the examination stress: a study of the psychosocial and academic adjustment of first year home students

Abstract

The main aim of the present study is threefold: (a) to investigate the relationship between personality variables (extraversion, neuroticism, achievement motivation), perceived social support and overall psychosocial adjustment to university life (measured in terms of absence of loneliness and overall subjective satisfaction with several social and academic aspects of university life; (b) to investigate the relationship between coping with examination stress, psychosocial adjustment and academic performance; and (c) to predict psychosocial adjustment to university life from a number of demographic, personality, coping and social support variables. One hundred and eighty three first year home students completed a questionnaire at the end of the academic year, measuring: (a) neuroticism, extraversion, achievement motivation, perceived social support, loneliness, overall adjustment to university life, and ways of coping with the examination stress. The results indicated that: (a) personality variables correlated significantly with social support and psychosocial adjustment to university life. However, none of the personality variables, perceived social support measures or other psychosocial adjustment indices correlated with academic performance. (b) Emotion-focused coping correlated positively with neuroticism and problem-focused coping correlated positively with achievement motivation. Several correlations were reported between personality and the different ways/strategies of coping with the examinations stress. Distancing oneself from examination stress was the only variable that significantly correlated with academic performance. (c) Finally, personality and social support contributed significantly to the prediction of psychosocial adjustment to university life. Results are discussed in relation to the relevant literature.