Family Communication Patterns and the Mediating Effects of Support and Resilience on Students' Concerns About College

Headnote

Objective: To identify first-year undergraduate students' concerns about college and examine how family support and resilience influence the relationships between family communication patterns and adjustment to college.

Background: Nearly half of undergraduate college students in the United States do not graduate within 6years. Low graduation rates come at high costs to students and universities. A deeper understanding of the family factors that contribute to adjustment concerns may provide retention-focused intervention opportunities.

Method: Survey data collected from precollege students (N = 2,252) were used to test a moderated mediation model in which family communication patterns are associated with adjustment concerns through resilience and family support.

Results: Conversation orientation was related to higher family support, whereas conformity was related to lower resilience and family support. Interaction results indicate that the effects of conversation orientation on some adjustment concerns depended on conformity ratings. Resilience mediated the relationship between the orientations and adjustment concerns.

Conclusion: Conversation and conformity orientation play a role in perceptions of family support, student resilience, and an array of concerns held by students as they enter college.

Implications: Parents may play an important role in helping their child adjust to college through the family communication environments they create and reinforce from childhood and through the support they provide during the transition to college.

Key Words: communication, family support, higher education, transition to college.

Forty-five percent of undergraduates enrolled in U.S. institutions of higher education will not graduate within 6 years (National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, 2015). This is problematic considering the benefits of earning a college degree are higher than ever (Vandenbrouke, 2015). Earning a college degree is associated with higher individual (e.g., earning potential, health) and social (e.g., lower rates of incarcerations, greater civic participation) benefits across all racial and ethnic groups, sexes, and family backgrounds (Baum & Payea, 2005). Similarly, the negative consequences of not completing a college degree can extend to the families and communities of students (HeavyRunner & DeCelles, 2002). Raisman (2013) argued that universities could improve their retention rates by up to 84% if they paid more attention to student concerns while at college. Indeed, uncertainty-induced student stress and concerns are associated with negative health outcomes (e.g., depression, Kessler, Berglund, Borges, Nock, & Wang, 2005; suicidal thoughts,...