Journal of College Orientation, Transition, and Retention

Managing the Transition to College

the Role of Family Cohesion and Adolescents' Emotional Coping Strategies

Vanessa K. Johnson

Susan E. Gans

Sandra Kerr

Kelly Deegan

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24926/jcotr.v15i2.2690

Keywords: Development theorists, adolescents, reject, maladjustment, social, emotional, academic, challenges, transition, first-year, family, coping, adjustment

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Abstract

In the present study we examine family based explanation for variability in adolescents' academic, social, and personal/emotional adjustment to college. Using a sample of 56 first-year college students, we test the hypothesis that adolescents' emotional coping strategies will moderate the relationship between ther pre-college family environment and their college adjustment assessed during both their first and second college semesters. Results support this hypothesis, indicating that by the end of their first college year, participants from cohesive families who are emotion managers report particularly strong adjustment to the academic and personal/emotional challenges of the transition to college.