Abstract:

The study investigated the impact of family bond on the academic adjustment ofcollege freshmen. The participants were 93 freshmen drawn randomly from the total of 739 students admitted to the college of engineering in the 2016/17 academic session. Fifty-one (i.e. 55 %) of the participants were males, and forty-two (about 45 %) females. The participants age ranged between 14 years and 19 years (X ̅ =16.10, SD = .92). The mastery and health subscale of the Family Inventory of Resources for Management (FIRM) developed by McCubbin, Comeau & Harkins (1991) was used as index of family bond, while the Academic Adjustment Scale developed by Anderson, Guan and Koc (2016) was used to measure academic adjustment. The data obtained was subjected to a hierarchical multiple regression analysis and a statistically significant inverse relationship was found between family bond and academic adjustment (β = -.36, t = -3.71, P<0.05), suggesting that students from cohesive families evinced poorer academic adjustment. There also was a significant interaction between family bond and gender (β = -.35, t = -3.55, P<0.05) in predicting academic adjustment. Additionally, type of family residence, whether family residence was owned or rented also predicted academic adjustment (β = -.201, t = -2.07, P<0.05) when age was taken into consideration. The findings suggest the need to provide on-campus environment that offer care and support to the freshman.

Keywords:

Academic adjustment, Family, Family Bond, college, Freshmen.