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Thesis advisor: Karen D. Arnold / Taking a gap year between high school and college has become more common in the United States in recent years, yet little research attempts to describe or analyze the experience of the students who arrive on college campuses after such a year out. This qualitative study followed 12 first-year students attending highly-selective private institutions in the northeastern U.S. as they experienced the transitions from high school to gap year to college. With varying levels of family support and high levels of personal motivation, the students participated in a wide range of gap-year endeavors. The findings indicate that students were heavily influenced by their encounters during the gap year, leading to strong evidence of self-authorship among the participants, which in turn shaped the way students pursued their goals when they arrived at college. Particularly influential were encounters that involved independent problem-solving, participating in multigenerational relationships, and immersion in new cultural settings. The students' transitions to college during the first year were marked by patterns of Sovereign Engagement with regard to learning, relationships, and decision-making. Commonly marked by internalized goals, authenticity in relationships, and greater individual agency, "Sovereign Engagement" captures the self-authored perspective that these students brought to their college experience. Contrary to suggestions in the popular media, not all gap-year students found the transition to be seamless; nor were they uniformly motivated to earn good grades. As a summary of the findings, the Gap Year Impact Model provides an important frame of reference for understanding the experiences, needs, and sovereign decision-making patterns of gap-year students. The results offer students, parents, colleges and universities an introduction to the lived experiences of gap-year students, who are arriving on campus in increasing numbers each year. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

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En 2015, la Fédération des cégeps du Québec soulignait que la santé mentale des cégépiens constituait une inquiétude croissante : l’anxiété liée aux évaluations, les symptômes dépressifs et la préoccupation à l’égard de la réussite scolaire touchent une proportion inquiétante d’étudiants. Conséquemment, le but de la présente étude était d’explorer le rôle modérateur et potentiellement protecteur de l’adaptation au cégep, sous les angles de l’adaptation sociale et de l’attachement institutionnel, au sein des relations entre l’anxiété liée aux évaluations, les symptômes dépressifs et le rendement scolaire. Des étudiants en première année du Cégep régional de Lanaudière à Joliette (n = 513; 63,5% de filles) ont complété, aux sessions d’automne 2016 et d’hiver 2017, des questionnaires autorapportés sur leur niveau d’adaptation sociale, d’attachement envers l’institution scolaire, d’anxiété liée aux évaluations, de symptômes dépressifs et de rendement scolaire. Les résultats ont indiqué que l’anxiété liée aux évaluations en première session ne prédit pas la cote R en fin de première session ni les symptômes dépressifs à la session d’hiver. Toutefois, les symptômes dépressifs à la première session prédisent négativement la cote R en fin de cette même session. Aussi, une cote R plus faible à la session d’automne influence l’augmentation de symptômes dépressifs à l’hiver. Enfin, malgré le fait que l’attachement institutionnel ne joue pas un rôle modérateur sur les relations étudiées, l’adaptation sociale, quant à elle, présente une interaction significative dans les relations bidirectionnelles entre l’anxiété et le rendement. Des implications sur les plans théorique et pratique en lien avec les résultats sont discutées. / In 2015, the Fédération des cégeps du Québec noted that the mental health of cegep students as a growing concern: test anxiety, depressive symptoms, and worry about academic success affects a disturbing proportion of students. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to explore the moderating and potentially protective role of cegep adjustment, from the angles of social adaptation and institutional attachment, within the relationships between test anxiety, depressive symptoms, and academic performance. First-year students at Cégep régional de Lanaudière in Joliette (n = 513; 63.5% female) completed self-reported questionnaires in the fall 2016 and winter 2017 semesters on their level of social adjustment, attachment to the institution, test anxiety, depressive symptoms, and academic performance. Results indicated that test anxiety in the first semester did not predict R score at the end of the first semester nor depressive symptoms in the winter semester. However, depressive symptoms in the first semester did negatively predict the R score at the end of the first semester. Also, a lower R score in the fall semester influenced the increase in depressive symptoms in the winter. Finally, although institutional attachment did not play a moderating role on the studied relationships, social adjustment shows a significant interaction in the bidirectional relationship between anxiety and performance. Theoretical and practical implications related to the results are discussed.

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