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Subjective well-being among first-year university students: A two-wave prospective study in Flanders, Belgium

De Coninck, D; Matthijs, K; Luyten, P; (2019) Subjective well-being among first-year university students: A two-wave prospective study in Flanders, Belgium. Student Success , 10 (1) pp. 33-45. 10.5204/ssj.v10i1.642. Green open access

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Abstract

In the transition from secondary to tertiary education, first-year students experience stress due to the academic, cultural, and social environment they must adapt to. This may negatively impact their subjective well-being, which in turn may negatively influence academic performance and increase the probability of dropping out. We report findings from a two-wave online study involving first-year students enrolled in a sociology course at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at the University of Leuven (Belgium). Students completed self-report questionnaires on sociodemographic background, subjective well-being, parental relationship quality, and personality, at the start (Time 1) and end (Time 2) of the first semester. 194 students (35%) completed measures at both times. Results show that subjective well-being decreased from the beginning to the end of the first semester. Well-being at university was positively, and feelings of depression negatively, related to subjective well-being at Time 1 and Time 2. Female students reported lower well-being than male students at Time 2 but not Time 1. The quality of the mother–child, but not the father–child, relationship was positively related to subjective well-being at Time 1 and Time 2.

Type: Article
Title: Subjective well-being among first-year university students: A two-wave prospective study in Flanders, Belgium
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.5204/ssj.v10i1.642
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.5204/ssj.v10i1.642
Language: English
Additional information: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). As an open access journal, articles are free to use with proper attribution.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Clinical, Edu and Hlth Psychology
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10066197
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