Personality as a Predictor of First-Semester Adjustment to College: The Mediational Role of Perceived Social Support.

Personality was hypothesized to predict college adjustment because of the role of perceived social support. A sample of III freshmen completed measures of personality, perceived social support, and college adjustment twice in their 1st semester. Perceived social support mediated the relationships between 3 personality factors (Emotional Stability, Social Boldness, and Abstractedness) and college adjustment, highlighting perceived social support as a point of intervention to improve 1st-semester students' college adjustment. ********** The transition from high school to college can be stressful (Jackson & Finney, 2002), and this transition makes first-semester college students ulncrable to symptoms of psychological distress (Compas, Wagner, Slavin, & Vannatta, 1986). Distressed freshmen may turn to campus resources, such as the college counseling center, during the first semester. The more that is known about personality characteristics that make students susceptible to poor adjustment to college, and why these characteristics might be related to adjustment, the more help college counselors can provide by developing specific interventions for at-risk students. To provide effective early intervention, counselors need to be able to identify stable personality characteristics that might precipitate poor adjustment. Numerous studies have focused on aspects of personality as predictors of college adjustment (e.g., Brooks & DuBois, 1995; Lu, 1994; Wintre & Sugar, 2000). Some research has shown that relatively narrow personality traits such as perfectionism (Rice &: Lapsley, 2001) and hardiness (Mathis & Lccci, 1999), are associated with adjustment. Other research has focused on broad personality taxonomies such as the Five-Factor Model of Personality (Wiggins, 1996; see Brooks &: DuBois, 1995; Lu, 1994; Wintre & Sugar, 2000). Research on broad personality factors reveals that extraversion correlates negatively with stress related to the college transition and neuroticism correlates positively with transition-related stress (Brooks &: DuBois, 1995; Lu, 1994). Previous research is limited in its applicability to practice in that focusing on only one narrow personality trait may miss other relevant predictors of adjustment, whereas studies using the Five-Factor Model of Personality construe personality so broadly that they limit the specificity of predictions of adjustment to college. Cattell's (1965) personality taxonomy provides a compromise for the study of college adjustment. Cattell posited that there are 16 primary personality factors: (a) Warmth (being outgoing vs. reserved), (b) Reasoning (having low vs. high reasoning ability), (c) Emotional Stability (being adaptive vs. reactive), (d) Dominance (being forceful vs. deferential), (e) Liveliness (being animated vs. serious), (f) Rule-Consciousness (being dutiful vs. nonconforming), (g) Social Boldness (being venturesome vs. shy), (h) Sensitivity (being sentimental vs. objective), (i) Vigilance (being suspicious vs. accepting), (j) Abstractedness (being imaginative vs. practical), (k) Privateness (being discreet vs. forthright), (1) Apprehension (being worried vs. self-assured), (m) Openness to Change (being willing to experiment vs. traditional), (n) Self-Reliance (being solitary vs. affiliative), (o) Perfectionism (being organized vs. flexible), and (p) Tension (being highly energetic vs. relaxed). The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) is a personality inventory that was developed on the basis of 16 personality factors Cat-tell (1965) identified. The 16PF has been shown to predict adjustment among noncollege students. Among a sample of general population adults and adolescents, Rieke and Conn (1994) reported that the Emotional Stability factor on the 16PF was positively correlated with social, emotional, and occupational adjustment. The Vigilance, Apprehension, Self-Reliance, and Tension factors were all negatively correlated with social, emotional, and occupational adjustment. …