Validating the relationship between beginning students’ transitional challenges, well-being, help-seeking, and their adjustments in an Australian university

Abstract

ABSTRACT To date, research has focussed on understanding how various contextual factors facilitate students’ adjustments to university as they begin their studies. However, there seems to be limited or no research and instruments that have specifically conceptualised and measured students’ adjustments, considering their transitional challenges, emotional wellbeing, and barriers to seeking help. Incorporating these factors, we previously developed a model of students’ adjustments, titled Transition, Wellbeing, Help-seeking and Adjustments (TWHAS). Building on this model, this paper aims to empirically validate the hypothesised TWHAS model using a validated survey and data collected from 306 first-year students transitioning to an Australian university. The strength of the predictive relations among the selected variables was tested by the significance of the path coefficients of the model. Our findings show a good fit to the theoretical model developed and demonstrate how students’ sociodemographic barriers to seeking help and moods (e.g. anxiety) can create a psychological barrier (e.g. lack of openness to seeking help) and how psychological barriers can further inhibit students’ overall adjustments to university. These findings have important implications for higher education policymakers, staff as well as administrators, counselling and support services future research on promoting students’ the positive adjustments to transition to university.