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Environmental Predictors of College Adjustment for Student Veterans: A Cross Sectional Survey

An influx of veterans have enrolled in college since the passage of the Veterans Educational Assistance Act in 2008. Since then, there have been a number of recommendations about how to provide support for transitioning student veterans; however, there is limited research about the experiences of student veterans with these support services and their adjustment to college. Therefore, this study's author investigated the relationship between institutional support, social support, and college adjustment via a cross-sectional survey administered to student veterans nationwide. The final sample size was 130 student veterans. Student veterans completed the following instruments: a demographic questionnaire, the Perceived Social Support Scale (Procidano & Heller, 1983), a measure of perceived institutional support, and the Student's Adjustment to College Questionnaire (Baker & Siryk, 1999). Regression analyses and ANOVAS were conducted to determine statistical significance and effect sizes amongst the variables of age, gender, combat status, length of enrollment in college, perceived institutional support, perceived social support, and college adjustment. Results revealed that perceived institutional support significantly predicted college adjustment (R¬2 = .171, p = .00) but that perceived social support did not. One-way ANOVAs conducted for gender and combat status were not statistically significant in this study. These results suggest that institutional support (both general and veteran-specific) is important to student veterans' college adjustment. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2015. / June 23, 2015. / Adjustment, College, Students, Veterans / Includes bibliographical references. / Deborah J. Ebener, Professor Directing Dissertation; Bruce A. Thyer, University Representative; Angel Canto, Committee Member; Debra S. Osborn, Committee Member.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_253089
ContributorsHurst, Vicie Ann (authoraut), Ebener, Deborah J. (professor directing dissertation), Thyer, Bruce A. (university representative), Canto, Angela I. (committee member), Osborn, Debra S. (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Education (degree granting college), Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems (degree granting department)
PublisherFlorida State University, Florida State University
Source SetsFlorida State University
LanguageEnglish, English
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, text
Format1 online resource (138 pages), computer, application/pdf
RightsThis Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them.

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