Students are humans too: Psychosocial vulnerability of first-year students at the University of Johannesburg
Abstract
This paper aims to describe the life challenges university students experienced in their first year of study during the transition into academia, how these impacted on their studies at the time, and how these have impacted on their life satisfaction and academic progress over the next year or two. Data were collected using a quantitative survey instrument from 463 second and third year students at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Results showed that prevalent and severe life challenges during the first year of study were the death of loved ones and poverty. Most of the life challenges impacted negatively on academic progress and well-being a year or two later, and in combination the pileup of vulnerability in first year has a sustained negative impact on student’s academic progress year a year or two later. Universities need to engage with the whole student as human within their social environment, with both academic and personal development needs.Downloads
References
Alpaslan, A. H. 2010. The coping strategies employed by Unisa‘s undergraduate students to address the realities experienced with respect to their living conditions in Sunnyside, Tshwane. Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk 46(1): 1-13.
Andrews, A., and L. Bailyn. 1993. "Segmentation and synergy: Two models of linking work and family." In Men, work, and family, ed. J. C. Hood, 262-275. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Benson, P. L., and R. N. Saito. 2000. "The Scientific Foundations of Youth Development." In Youth development: Issues, challenges and directions, ed. N. Jaffe, 125-148. Philadelphia, PA: Public/Private Ventures.
Collins, K. J., and A. D. Van Breda. 2010. Academic support for first year social work students in South Africa. Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk 46(1): 14-25.
Collins, S., M. Coffey, and L. Morris. 2010. Social work students: Stress, support and well-being. British Journal of Social Work 40(3): 963-982.
Cook-Sather, A., and H. Curl. 2014. 'I want to listen to my students' lives': Developing an ecological perspective in learning to teach. Teacher Education Quarterly 41(1): 85-103.
Deen, A., and L. Leonard. 2015. Exploring potential challenges of first year student retention and success rates: A case of the school of tourism and hospitality, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. African Journal for Physical Health Education, Recreation and Dance 21: 233-241.
Diener, E., R. A. Emmons, R. J. Larsen, and S. Griffin. 1985. The Satisfaction with Life Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment 49(1): 71-75.
Du Plessis, M., and R. Benecke. 2011. Risk, resilience and retention: A multi-pronged student development model. The Journal of Independent Teaching and Learning 6: 25-33.
Galatzer-Levy, I. R., C. L. Burton, and G. A. Bonanno. 2012. Coping flexibility, potentially traumatic life events, and resilience: A prospective study of college student adjustment. Journal of Social & Clinical Psychology 31(6): 542-567.
Gordon, S. F., and A. Collins. 2013. "We face rape. We face all things": Understandings of gender-based violence amongst female students at a South African university. African Safety Promotion 11(2): 93-106.
Hall, K., and W. Sambu. 2014. "Income poverty, unemployment and social grants." In South African child gauge 2014, ed. S. Mathews, L. Jamieson, L. Lake and C. Smith, 94-98. Cape Town: Children’s Institute, University of Cape Town.
Kanter, R. M. 2006. "Beyond the myth of separate worlds." In The work and family handbook: Multi-disciplinary perspectives and approaches, ed. M. Pitt-Catsouphes, E. E. Kossek and S. Sweet, xi-xv. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associated.
Kleim, B., and A. Ehlers. 2009. Evidence for a curvilinear relationship between posttraumatic growth and posttrauma depression and PTSD in assault survivors. Journal of Traumatic Stress 22(1): 45-52.
Maree, J. G. 2015. Barriers to access to and success in higher education: Intervention guidelines: Part 2. South African Journal of Higher Education 29(1): 390-411.
Maxwell, G. M., and P. Mudhovozi. 2014. Transiting from rural high school to university: The challenges of getting into an appropriate degree programme. New Voices in Psychology 10(2): 3-14.
Mbara, T. C., and C. Celliers. 2013. Travel patterns and challenges experienced by University of Johannesburg off-campus students. Journal of Transport and Supply Chain Management 7(1): 1-8.
McGowan, T. C., and A. Kagee. 2013. Exposure to traumatic events and symptoms of post-traumatic stress among South African university students. South African Journal of Psychology 43(3): 327-339.
Mudhovozi, P. 2011. Analysis of perceived stress, coping resources and life satisfaction among students at a newly established institution of higher learning. South African Journal of Higher Education 25(3): 510-522.
Munro, N., M. Quayle, H. Simpson, and S. Barnsley. 2013. Hunger for knowledge: Food insecurity among students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Perspectives in Education 31(4): 168-179.
OECD. 2014. "OECD employment outlook 2014." http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/empl_outlook-2014-en.
Patel, C. J., S. Ramgoon, and Z. Paruk. 2009. Exploring religion, race and gender as factors in the life satisfaction and religiosity of young South African adults. South African Journal of Psychology 39(3): 266-274.
Pillay, A. L., and H. S. B. Ngcobo. 2010. Sources of stress and support among rural-based first-year university students: An exploratory study. South African Journal of Psychology 40(3): 234-240.
Prinsloo, E. H. 2016. The role of the Humanities in decolonising the academy. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education 15(1): 164-168. doi: 10.1177/1474022215613608.
Roothman, B., D. K. Kirsten, and M. P. Wissing. 2003. Gender differences in aspects of psychological well-being. South African Journal of Psychology 33(4): 212-218.
Seekings, J., and N. Nattrass. 2015. Policy, politics and poverty in South Africa. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Shumba, A., and M. Naong. 2013. The influence of family income on students' career choice at universities of technology. South African Journal of Higher Education 27(4): 1021-1037.
Sommer, M., and K. Dumont. 2011. Psychosocial factors predicting academic performance of students at a historically disadvantaged university. South African Journal of Psychology 41(3): 386-395.
Southwick, S. M., G. A. Bonanno, A. S. Masten, C. Panter-Brick, and R. Yehuda. 2014. Resilience definitions, theory, and challenges: Interdisciplinary perspectives. European Journal of Psychotraumatology 5: 1-14. doi: 10.3402/ejpt.v5.25338.
Van Breda, A. D. 2013. Psychosocial vulnerability of social work students. Social Work Practitioner-Researcher 25(1): 19-35.
Wade, B. L. 2009. "UNISA social work students' experiences of trauma: An exploratory study from a person-centred perspective."Doctoral Thesis, University of South Africa.
Zewotir, T., D. North, and M. Murray. 2011. Student success in entry level modules at the University of Kwazulu-Natal. South African Journal of Higher Education 25(6): 1233-1244.
Copyright (c) 2017 Adrian DuPlessis van Breda
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This journal is an open access journal, and the authors and journal should be properly acknowledged, when works are cited.
Authors, copyright holders, may use the publishers version for teaching purposes, in books, theses, dissertations, conferences and conference papers.
A copy of the authors' publishers version may also be hosted on the following websites:
- Non-commercial personal homepage or blog.
- Institutional webpage.
- Authors Institutional Repository.
The following notice should accompany such a posting on the website: This is an electronic version of an article published in SAJHE, Volume XXX, number XXX, pages XXX “XXX", DOI. Authors should also supply a hyperlink to the original paper or indicate where the original paper (http://www.journals.ac.za/index.php/SAJHE) may be found.
Authors publishers version, affiliated with the Stellenbosch University will be automatically deposited in the University Institutional Repository SUNScholar.
Articles as a whole, may not be re-published with another journal.
The following license applies:
Attribution CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
