Social support and life satisfaction in first semester students

Abstract

First semester students experience the beginning of university studies as a challenging transition with manifold adaptation processes calling for social support. To examine these processes an intensive longitudinal study design was applied. Perceived as well as needed social support, satisfaction with family, friends, and life satisfaction in sixty-three first semester psychology students of a German university was assessed using morning and evening online diaries over ten consecutive days. First results of multilevel analyses point to a negative relationship between needed emotional support and satisfaction with family as well as with life satisfaction in general on a within and between person level. In the same vein, a positive association between received emotional support and satisfaction with family as well as with life satisfaction occurred on a within and between person level. On a within person level we found a negative relationship between needed emotional support and satisfaction with friends and a positive relationship between received emotional support and satisfaction with friends on a between person level. Thus, on days first semester students needed more emotional support they were less satisfied and on days first semester students received more emotional support they were more satisfied. In conjunction with moderator analyses these results will be discussed with respect to the importance of social support for (mental) health during challenging educational transition periods. First ideas for interventions tailored to reduce dropouts in first semester students will be generated.