Adjustment to university among university students: a correlational study

The purpose of this study was to investigate possible correlates of adjustment to University among University students. Five dimensions of adaptation (career, personal, interpersonal, study, and institutional) were correlated with the following variables: level of participation on extracurricular activities, perceived familial support concerning professional choice, perceived emotional support by parents, level of interaction with faculty members in out-of-classroom contexts, level of vocational exploratory behavior and course level. The participants in the study included 342 students from three different courses, with a mean age of 21,2 years. Adjustment to university was assessed with the Questionário de Vivências Acadêmicas – Revisado (Academic Experiences Questionnaire – Revised), and the other variables were evaluated with specific instruments. Among the main findings, selfexploration and out-of-classroom interaction with faculty members were the variables with the most significant associations with all five dimensions of adaptation to university, while environmental exploration showed weaker correlations (and did not correlate with the study dimension). Perceived emotional support by parents showed a weak, but significant, relationship with the interpersonal dimension of adaptation. Results are discussed considering the literature on the subject. Keywords: adaptation to university; academic experiences; university students.