Social Support, Coping, Life Satisfaction, and Academic Success Among College Students

Abstract

Despite recent concerns about the economic and social value of college, research has suggested that more than 90% of American parents hope their children will attend college (Fingerhut, 2017). This makes sense given that the benefits of earning a college degree include an increase in lifetime earnings (Abel & Deitz, 2019; Carnevale et al., 2011). In addition, most college graduates say that their education prepared them for their career and fostered both personal and intellectual development (Heimlich, 2011). From a societal perspective, college graduates contribute to their communities financially and tend to be more civically active than noncollege graduates (Campbell, 2006). According to a Lumina Foundation Survey, earning a bachelor’s degree increases an individual’s annual income, lifetime earnings, access to health insurance and retirement benefits, job security, and health (Trostel, 2015). College graduates also benefit society, both in terms of their skilled contributions to their communities and the economic benefits of having a strong workforce. They are also more civically and socially engaged (Campbell, 2006; Edelson, 2020). Unfortunately, starting a degree and completing one are not the same thing. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2018), only 60% of first-year students who started school in 2010 had obtained a degree by 2016. Research has indicated that, at the individual level, failing to complete a college degree exacts a financial cost in terms of lost tuition and loans (U.S. Department of Education, 2019) and a psychological cost including distress (Hoeschler & Backes-Gellner, 2019). Universities also suffer since poor retention and graduation rates can have a negative impact on their status and recognition. Given these microand macro-level costs, it is imperative to increase the understanding of the correlates of student achievement. ABSTRACT. Although more students are enrolling in college than ever before, far too many fail to complete their degrees. The financial, personal, and societal costs of leaving college can be high. The current study explored the relationship between 2 key psychosocial factors, social support and coping, and 2 measures of psychological well-being; specifically, life satisfaction, and perceptions of the campus environment, both of which have been related to grade point average (GPA) and student retention. Path analysis results indicated that social support (B = .31, p < .001) and life satisfaction (B = .36, p = .005) were positively related to perception of university environment, whereas the use of problematic coping strategies (B = −.42, p = .003) was negatively related to perception of university environment. In addition, higher class year (B = −.11, p = .004) and first-generation student status (B = −.25, p = .013) were negatively related to GPA. These findings suggest that university efforts to help students develop positive social support resources and effective coping strategies have the potential to increase both psychological well-being and academic success.