Beginning university can be conceptualized as a stressful life event as both positive aspects and several new challenges are associated with the transition (Hudd, Dumlao, Erdmann-Sager, Murry, Phan et al., 2000; Kerr, Johnson, Gans, Krumrine, 2004; Lamothe, Currie, Alisat, Sullivan, Pratt et al., 1995). Sometimes a poor transition may result in a students inability to complete their degree. It is important to develop a more thorough understanding of the transition to university in order to improve student retention. The present investigation considered a range of demographic, psychosocial, and health behaviours that may be related to a students ability to adapt to university. These variables were investigated using a short-term longitudinal design over the first year of university. Participants (Time 1 N = 229, Time 2 N = 73) consisted of first year University of Saskatchewan students (age, M = 18.46, SD =1). Results suggested that approximately 1/3 of the students found the transition to university to be difficult and that in general women had a more difficult time than men in terms of social and personal/emotional adjustment. There was no significant difference in academic adjustment or achievement between men and women. Psychosocial variables and health behaviours were related to one another such that greater physical activity levels went hand in hand with more adaptive coping and higher levels of social support and self-esteem. During the first semester, easier transitions and better adjustment were largely predicted by more adaptive coping, good social support, better grades and fewer daily hassles. For women, second semester transition experiences and adjustment measures were strongly predicted by the same measures as observed in the first semester.

Sweden is one of the European countries that became a main destination for the immigrants and refugees from different countries and from different cultural backgrounds especially from the developing world.        While there seems to be a consensus in the literature that cultural adjustment is needed to integrate immigrants in the host culture, so far, it is not clear how the immigrants in Sweden perceive that need, and how willing and how welcomed they are to adjust to the Swedish culture. Therefore, it becomes necessary to shed light on the debate of the need of cultural adjustment and the major theories in this debate like the assimilation theory and Harrison’s theory, which arguing that immigrants need to culturally adjust to be able to fit in and to integrate in the host culture.        In this sense, the study aims to shed a different light on this debate through the immigrant’s perspective and how they perceive the need for cultural adjustment to integrate in the Swedish culture, and how willing as well as how welcomed they are to adjust to the host culture. A qualitative study was carried out using 18 semi-structured interviews as the primary source of data in the study, while the scope of this study was limited only to Växjö city which makes it difficult to generalize the results of this study.        The findings have revealed that the sample of immigrants in this study have perceived the need for a socio-economic adjustment rather than a cultural one and they feel willing and welcomed by the Swedish culture to make such adjustment as it is crucial and necessary for them to improve the quality of life as well as for social inclusion to be integrated and not excluded or marginalized.        The author suggests further research in this topic by conducting similar research but on a wider scope and with deeper interviews that include a larger number of immigrants to further explore how they perceive the need to adjust to the Swedish society.     Key words: culture, adjustment, integration, assimilation, immigrants.

Beginning university can be conceptualized as a stressful life event as both positive aspects and several new challenges are associated with the transition (Hudd, Dumlao, Erdmann-Sager, Murry, Phan et al., 2000; Kerr, Johnson, Gans, Krumrine, 2004; Lamothe, Currie, Alisat, Sullivan, Pratt et al., 1995). Sometimes a poor transition may result in a students inability to complete their degree. It is important to develop a more thorough understanding of the transition to university in order to improve student retention. The present investigation considered a range of demographic, psychosocial, and health behaviours that may be related to a students ability to adapt to university. These variables were investigated using a short-term longitudinal design over the first year of university. Participants (Time 1 N = 229, Time 2 N = 73) consisted of first year University of Saskatchewan students (age, M = 18.46, SD =1). Results suggested that approximately 1/3 of the students found the transition to university to be difficult and that in general women had a more difficult time than men in terms of social and personal/emotional adjustment. There was no significant difference in academic adjustment or achievement between men and women. Psychosocial variables and health behaviours were related to one another such that greater physical activity levels went hand in hand with more adaptive coping and higher levels of social support and self-esteem. During the first semester, easier transitions and better adjustment were largely predicted by more adaptive coping, good social support, better grades and fewer daily hassles. For women, second semester transition experiences and adjustment measures were strongly predicted by the same measures as observed in the first semester.

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Thesis (M.A.)--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 2000. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2993. Typescript. Abstract precedes thesis title page as [2] preliminary leaves. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 24-28).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 55-64). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 178-198).

Thesis (M.A.)--The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2008. / Directed by Julie Brown; submitted to the Dept. of Sociology. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Jan. 28, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 79-84).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 174-198). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references.