Adjustment of College Freshmen as Predicted by Both Perceived Parenting Style and the Five Factor Model of Personality—Personality and Adjustment

Abstract

The adjustment that freshmen make to college is important, and is related to student retention. The present study explored the relationships among freshmen students’ personality traits, their perceptions of the parenting styles employed by their mothers and fathers, their positive and negative adjustment, and their adaptation to college. Freshmen participants (74 men, 116 women) were from a Midwestern, religiously affiliated university. Results revealed that the relationships between parenting styles and adjustment to college, although statistically significant, were quite weak. In contrast, analyses revealed that strong relationships exist between personality traits and the adjustment that freshmen students make to college. These relationships were found to be different with regard to gender. The results have important implications for the adjustment that freshmen students make to college.