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THE EFFECTS OF LONELINESS AND COPING STYLE ON ACADEMIC ADJUSTMENT AMONG COLLEGE FRESHMEN [Social Behavior and Personality (New Zealand)]
[August 05, 2014]

THE EFFECTS OF LONELINESS AND COPING STYLE ON ACADEMIC ADJUSTMENT AMONG COLLEGE FRESHMEN [Social Behavior and Personality (New Zealand)]


(Social Behavior and Personality (New Zealand) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) We explored the relationships among loneliness, coping style, and adjustment to college from high school. Participants were a sample of 276 college freshmen from a university in China. The measures we used were the Emotional and Social Loneliness Scale, the Coping Style Scale for College Students, and the Academic Adjustment Scale for College Students. We found that loneliness had a direct negative effect on adjustment, and also negatively affected adjustment by activating a negative coping style and suppressing a positive coping style. Both forms of coping style played a mediating role in the relationship between loneliness and adjustment to college. Our findings add to the extant literature on the relationships among loneliness, coping styles, and academic adjustment in China, and have implications for addressing Chinese freshmen's adjustment to college life from a new perspective.



Keywords: loneliness, coping style, academic adjustment, college freshmen.

As a result of huge educational reform in China in recent decades, enrollment opportunities have expanded and more and more high school students now gain access into college. For instance, in 2012 college enrollments reached 6.85 million (China Education Online, 2013). As colleges are a major source of talent for Chinese society, college students have always been a research focus. For most college freshmen in China, it is the first time they will live away from parents and study independently from teachers, and this dramatic change challenges the students' established style of thinking and behavior. It also exerts a particular stress (Parker, Summerfeldt, Hogan, & Majeski, 2004) that forces them to regulate themselves in order to handle the new academic mode, social relationships, and daily affairs such as household maintenance. The changes involved in starting at college mean that it is unlikely that freshmen will adapt to their new environment instantly and they must experience an inevitable transition phase. As a consequence, disorders related to adjustment are prevalent among students making the transition to university (Tao, Dong, Pratt, Hunsberger, & Pancer, 2000), especially problems with academic adjustment among college freshmen (Wang & Lei, 2013).


Academic adjustment refers to a process involving psychological and behavioral change as individuals try hard to regulate themselves to achieve balance in their new academic environment and to meet the new learning requirements of a university (Feng & Li, 2002). Academic adjustment difficulties may initiate a series of problems, of which the most severe are social maladjustment and unhealthy development (e.g., poor social functioning, low self-esteem; Parker et al., 2004), which will impair students' academic performance and their engagement with the university (Jansen & van der Meer, 2012). To date, however, the etiology of academic adjustment among Chinese college freshmen has not been well understood, so there is a pressing need for more research, in order to elucidate its risk factors and the mechanism underlying its development. Thus, our aim in this study was to extend past work by exploring the potential risk factors and the developmental mechanism of Chinese college freshmen's academic adjustment, and to identify implications for intervention.

As a turning point of stepping into early adulthood, embarking on a college course provides a platform for students to accomplish further psychological development, but this progression can, typically, also elicit some negative outcomes, such as a sudden reduction in social relationships, which may, in turn, result in loneliness (Tao et al., 2000). Loneliness is a negative emotional experience, which tends to make individuals adopt negative views of their surroundings and lose interest in positive exploration. Loneliness may hinder freshmen's good academic adjustment as they lose interest in mastering learning skills and take a negative attitude toward their surroundings (Bekhet & Zauszniewski, 2012). In their loneliness model Hawkley and Cacioppo (2010) posited that feelings of loneliness can reduce the individual's abilities of self- regulation and cognitive processing, and may, in turn, negatively influence that individual's academic adjustment.

Another factor that may affect academic adjustment is coping style (Leong, Bonz, & Zachar, 1997). According to the cognitive appraisal theory (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), in order to relieve the effects of stress, individuals will adopt a certain coping style after evaluating a situation, and the specific coping style adopted may lead to quite different consequences. For instance, a positive coping style, characterized by approach-oriented coping, seeking help, and positive cognition, is related to fewer emotional and behavior disorders, and may also positively predict individuals' academic and personal/emotional adjustment. In contrast, a negative coping style, including avoidance and emotion-focused coping, has been identified as being related to higher levels of dysfunctional problems (Tao et al., 2000). For example, it has been found that use of a positive coping style could promote university students' academic adjustment and reduce displays of maladaptive behaviors (Sasaki & Yamasaki, 2007; Russell, Rosenthal, & Thomson, 2010). Hence, different types of coping may exert different effects on academic adjustment.

To our knowledge, the specific relationship between loneliness and coping style has not yet been assessed, as previous researchers have explored the effect of either loneliness or coping style on academic adjustment separately. Theoretically, college freshmen's choice of coping style can be activated by loneliness (Heinrich & Gullone, 2006). As a stressful event and a negative emotional reaction, experiencing loneliness can activate in individuals a coping mechanism that is focused on negative effects (Krause-Parello, 2008), that is, a negative coping style is the main style that may be activated by loneliness. For instance, Cacioppo et al. (2000) found that individuals who were feeling very lonely used more negative and fewer positive ways of coping than others who were less lonely. However, past researchers have neglected the role of coping style in the specific association of loneliness with academic adjustment. This treatment has limited the furthering of understanding about the specific mechanism of how loneliness affects academic adjustment, especially through coping style. Moreover, the factor of cultural characteristics must be included when examining the relationships among loneliness, coping style, and academic adjustment, as differences in college management and education mode may exist in different cultures.

Therefore, based on previous studies, and according to the loneliness model (Hawkley & Cacioppo, 2010), and cognitive appraisal theory (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), we hypothesized that loneliness would directly influence Chinese college freshmen's academic adjustment, and would also affect their academic adjustment indirectly via the mediator of coping style.

Method Participants and Procedure Participants were 284 college freshmen enrolled at a college in Wuhu, Anhui Province, China, from whom we received 276 effective survey forms. Of these participants, 95 were male and 181 were female, and they were on average 18.83 years of age (SD = 1.23, range = 16 to 22).

We conducted the research in October 2013 when freshmen in China have been in college for one month. We selected four freshman classes randomly at a class time to launch the investigation. Instructions were read to all the students before they answered the scales and the researchers collected the survey forms after completion.

The Research Ethics Committee of Anhui Normal University and the principals of the participating school approved this study. The study purpose and the autonomy of the participants to refuse to take part in this study at any time were highlighted before they completed the survey. Participants also completed written consent forms in which they were informed of their right to withdraw from the survey at any time.

Measures Emotional and social loneliness. We assessed the loneliness status of college freshmen using the Emotional and Social Loneliness Scale as revised by Liu (1999) from the original scale by Wittenberg and Reis (1986). It consists of 10 items exploring two dimensions labeled emotional loneliness and social loneliness. The items are rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (quite often) and this scale in this study had an acceptable level of reliability (a = .68) and a good fit according to root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) in confirmatory factor analysis (CFA): c2/df = 2.038, RMSEA = .061.

Coping style of college students. To asses coping style we used the Trait Coping Style Questionnaire developed by Jiang (1996). The scale has two dimensions (10 items in each) labeled positive coping and negative coping and the reliability of both subscales was acceptable (alpha coefficients = .69 and .70, respectively). Items are rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (absolutely no) to 5 (absolutely yes) and the scale in this study also had an acceptable level of reliability (alpha coefficients = .69 and .75, respectively) and good fit indices in CFA: c2/df = 2.12, RMSEA = .064.

Academic adjustment of college students. We assessed college freshmen's academic adjustment level with the Academic Adjustment Scale for College Students revised from the Vocational College Students' Academic Adjustment Questionnaire, which was developed by Zhou and Wang (2012). The scale has 40 items (11 of which are reverse scored) divided across five dimensions (eight items in each) labeled physical and mental health, learning interest, learning strategy, learning environment, and teaching mode. The scale is scored on a 5-point-Likert scale ranging from 1 (completely disagree) to 5 (completely agree) and in this study had a good level of reliability (overall alpha coefficient = .85) and good fit indices in CFA: c2/df = 2.06, RMSEA = .062.

Data Analysis Descriptive analysis was conducted with SPSS version 17.0 to measure the level of college freshmen's academic adjustment. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to examine the associations among the main measures. We performed statistical analyses with AMOS version 7.0 software (Arbuckle, 2006). Missing data were handled with maximum likelihood estimation with robust standard errors (MLR). To evaluate the model fit, we used chi-squared values, the comparative fit index (CFI), and RMSEA. A nonsignificant chi-squared value indicates a good fit between the model and the data. The general cutoff criteria for accepting a model are: a CFI and a Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) equal to, or greater than, .95, and an RMSEA equal to, or less than, .05 (Hu & Bentler, 1999). We used structural equation modeling to assess the relationships among loneliness, positive coping style, negative coping style, and academic adjustment.

Results Descriptive Statistics and Correlations Among Measures The mean scores for loneliness, positive coping style, negative coping style, and academic adjustment are shown in Table 1. Pearson coefficients revealed that loneliness was negatively correlated with both positive coping style and academic adjustment, but was positively correlated with negative coping style. Positive coping style was positively correlated with academic adjustment, and negative coping style was negatively correlated with academic adjustment.

Analysis of Mediating Effects We constructed a structural equation model to explore the mediating effect of coping style in the process of the effect of loneliness on academic adjustment. First, we constructed a direct effect model and conducted path analyses. The fit indices were good (c2(12) = 17.71, RMSEA = .04, CFI = .99, TLI = .98), and the path coefficient from loneliness to academic adjustment was significant.

After adding positive coping style and negative coping style to the path from loneliness to academic adjustment (see Figure 1), the model indices were also good (c2(20) = 34.30, RMSEA = .05, CFI = .98, TLI = .96). This indicated that the new model was reasonable. Path analysis revealed that the path coefficients from loneliness to academic adjustment, positive coping style, and negative coping style were all statistically significant. Therefore, we determined that both positive and negative coping styles had a mediating effect on the relationship between loneliness and academic adjustment.

Discussion In this study, we constructed structural equation models to examine the relationships among loneliness, coping style, and academic adjustment in a sample of Chinese college freshmen. The results showed that the college freshmen's loneliness had a direct negative predictive effect on their academic adjustment, which supports the suggestion by Hasnain and Fatima (2012) that loneliness does harm to an individual's adjustment. Loneliness can weaken freshmen's interest in, and their initiative to explore, new surroundings (Bekhet & Zauszniewski, 2012), and can generate a decline in an individual's cognitive ability, including emotion recognition (Dong, Simon, Gorbien, Percak, & Golden, 2007). Thus, experiencing loneliness brings about a situation that damages an essential element for achieving academic adjustment.

We also found that loneliness could reduce the level of our participants' academic adjustment by suppressing use of positive ways of coping and promoting use of negative coping strategies. Vanhalst, Luyckx, Scholte, Engels, and Goossens (2013) suggested that loneliness could result in negative self-knowledge and self-evaluation, could lower the level of self-esteem, reduce self-efficacy of coping, and raise the sense of incompetence (Bolger & Amarel, 2007). Therefore, freshmen who feel very lonely are more likely to experience frustration and be susceptible to mental illness, which will reduce their proactive behavior and intention to explore their new surroundings. Thus, lonely students tend to resort to using negative, rather than positive, coping styles. According to the multidimensional model of coping style (Connor-Smith, Compas, Wadsworth, Thomsen, & Saltzman, 2000), a positive coping style drives people to deal with problems through a variety of strategies like seeking help and structuring positive cognition. In contrast, people who adopt a negative coping style will handle their encounters with stressful situations with strategies such as denying, yielding, and escaping. Individuals adopting a negative coping style show a low level of efficacy in solving problems and negative coping can even lead to more emotional and behavioral problems (Garnefski, Boon, & Kraaij, 2003). In sum, loneliness can give rise to difficulties in academic adjustment by suppressing the positive, and activating the negative, coping mode.

We note two limitations in this study. First, all variables were measured by self-report scales; thus, associations between the main measures might be affected by common method variance. Second, participants were college freshmen in China, so generalization of our results to people in other cultures and countries must be done with caution.

Despite these limitations, our findings contribute new knowledge to those of previous theoretical and empirical studies on the relationship of loneliness to academic adjustment. Specifically, we have added to the understanding of how loneliness affects academic adjustment via coping style. From the intervention and health-enhancement perspective, our findings have important implications for educators at the time of college enrollment. College educators should be aware that, by alleviating the loneliness of college freshmen, they can help improve the academic adjustment status of those students. This can be achieved through an increase in the students' use of positive styles of coping and reduction in their use of negative coping styles as a byproduct of reducing their loneliness. For example, educators can create more chances for freshmen to communicate and establish a new social network, and can provide an adequate psychological counseling service. By alleviating college freshmen's lonely condition in ways such as these, educators can encourage students to use positive coping strategies such as seeking help and finding a healthy outlet for expressions of emotion, and can hinder use of negative coping strategies such as avoidance and emotion- focused coping. Thus, the efficacy of freshman students to solve problems and utilize healthy outlets for expressing their emotions (e.g., talking to friends) is enhanced, and eventually they will achieve a better academic adjustment.

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LIJUAN QUAN, RUI ZHEN, AND BENXIAN YAO Anhui Normal University XIAO ZHOU Beijing Normal University Lijuan Quan, Rui Zhen, and Benxian Yao, College of Educational Science, Anhui Normal University; Xiao Zhou, School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University.

This research was funded by the program Research on the Structure, Current Situation and Features of Ideals among Middle School Students (DBA130215).

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to: Rui Zhen, School of Educational Science, Anhui Normal University, No. 1 Beijing East Road, Wuhu, Anhui 241000, People's Republic of China. Email: [email protected] (c) 2014 Scientific Journal Publishers Ltd

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