Longitudinal study of first-year students' psychosocial adjustment in the university context : question of transition to adulthood ; Approche longitudinale de l'ajustement psychosocial des étudiants primo-entrants en contexte universitaire : une question de transition vers l'âge adulte

Starting university is a period of major transition with many changes in roles, statuses, and environments. This transitional period corresponds to the beginning of the becoming an adult. The developmental challenge of this time involves autonomy and independence issues. Autonomy and independence are acquired progressively and are expressed through young adults’ representations of family functioning and their own functioning. Thus, the family environment, attachment representations, home-leaving experience, and self-determination processes are expressions of becoming adult that are particularly questioned during this major transition. With a holistic-interactionist point of view, the current research aims to investigate young adults’ psychosocial development when they enter at the university considering specificities of the developmental period.Our sample consisted of freshman young adults. Using a longitudinal approach, this research had three waves and to two separate cohorts. The first wave was during the back-to- school period, in September/October (N = 1,142); the second wave in the middle of the freshman year, in February/March (N = 248); and the third wave at the end of the year, in June/July (N = 101). In each wave, participants completed the questionnaire assessing family environment (i.e., parents-child relationship and family relationships), attachment representations, home-leaving, self-determination process (i.e., academic motivation and basic psychological needs), and psychosocial adjustment (i.e., psychological well-being, self- worth, depression, and academic results). Data were analyzed using both person-oriented and variable-oriented approaches and considered the different kinds of variability.Our results highlight the heterogeneity and multiplicity of family environment, attachment, and self-determination profiles, home leaving classes, and developmental patterns in the beginning of the freshman year. Family environment, attachment, and self- determination profiles presented a singular ...