Hardiness and College Adaptation
Elizabeth Gonnella
November 23, 1999
Senior Thesis
A Thesis Submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirement for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in the Department
of Psychology at Saint Anselm College, Manchester New Hampshire.
Running Head: HARDINESS AND ADJUSTMENT
Many studies have been conducted
to understand the relationship between hardiness and cognitive affects
and behavioral functions. Hardiness has a direct connection with
how well an individual will cope with life situations and stressors, and
wellness therapy has been demonstrated to show this connection.
Given these findings, this
research investigated the relationship of hardiness and college adaptation,
in general. The relationship was assessed via the Hardiness Scale
and the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire. There was a
moderate correlation between hardiness and college adaptation, suggesting
more hardy individuals have higher adjustment scores. Results are
discussed in the context of suggestions for further research on hardiness.
I would like to take this
opportunity to thank those people who have guided me through my senior
thesis. Professor Finn, my advisor, thank you for making yourself
available for my many quick questions and for talking me through frustrating
times. To my parents who listened and gave advice when I needed it.
The Psychology Department,
all of the faculty, thank you for always showing your dedication and passion
for the field of psychology, it kept me focused and driven to strive and
accomplish.
All of my roommates deserve
a big thank you for putting up with me and my thesis and for understanding
its importance to me. Also, I would like to thank my roommate, Julie,
for letting me use her computer, and to the computer, thanks for not dying
on me.
I Title
1
II Abstract
2
III Acknowledgements
3
III Table of Contents
4
V Introduction 5
1. Hardiness and Stress
7
2. Hardiness, Personality, and
Stress
10
3. Hypothesis
14
VI Methods
15
VII Results
19
VIII Discussion
21
IX Appendix . 24
1. Informed Consent
24
2. Debriefing Statement
25
3. Questionnaire 1
26
4. Questionnaire 2
31
XIV References
33
Dealing with stressful circumstances
in an effective manner is an area of interest to many. Past research
has shown certain characteristics of a personality promote more effective
ways of managing stressful circumstances. For example, Maddi and
Kobasa (1984), found hardiness encompasses interrelated self-perceptions
of commitment, control, and challenge.
Based on Maddi and Kobasa
(1984), research indicates that people with a strong sense of commitment
rely on themselves to find various ways of turning a stressful circumstance
into something that is important. People with a strong sense of control
believe that through effort they can alter the course of events rather
than perceiving themselves as victims of circumstance. People strong
in challenge believe in continual growth through wisdom of what is learned
from experience. Together, all three constitute courage and resiliency
in facing lifes tasks.
College life, for
many, becomes a prime time for stressful circumstances to arise.
For example, Dixon, Heppner, and Anderson (1991), examines the link between
problem-solving skills to suicide by investigating the role of problem-solving
appraisal among students enrolled in introductory psychology courses.
The results indicated that problem-solving appraisal, and negative life
stress are significant independent predictors of suicide ideation and hopelessness.
College is a time where people further develop their personalities, abilities,
and well-being.
Ryff and Heidrich (1997),
looked at the causes of variations in psychological well-being, with regards
to different domains of life. This study showed that for young adults,
activities outside of school, and family were the more powerful predictor
of variation in well-being. These variations in well-being are prominent
among freshmen college students. As
adaptation progresses, an individuals well-being will either be affected
in a positive or negative way. This will also depend upon the individuals
perception of the stressor. A study conducted by Muhar (1974) examines
the effects of stress on perception. This research tested the hypothesis
that there is a positive relationship between stress and the resistance
to perceptual change. Results shows that the second measure for resistance
to perceptual change, which is the time, required for achieving stabilization
was inconclusive. However, the sample size in this study was
small, and further research using a larger sample size may yield conclusive
evidence of this relationship.
Hardiness and Stress
Past research has linked stress
to many different personality traits as well as different life events or
situations. Cooper, Cary L.(ED); Payne, Roy(ED) (1991), explored
the relationship between certain personality characteristics and coping
with stress. Related research by Carpenter, Bruce N.(ED) (1992),
discusses coping models, which is mostly a recent phenomenon. Their
research presented current models of coping described the coping process,
and related the coping process to environmental factors, personal variables,
and desirable outcomes.
Mathis, Michele; Lecci, and Len
(1999), examined whether hardiness can be used in identifying students
who have difficulties with academic, social, emotional, and attachment
adjustment. Results showed that hardiness, overall, was a better
predictor of mental rather than physical health. Other research by
Uehara, Toru; Sakado, Miwako; Sato, Tetsuya; Someya, and Toshiyuki (1999),
investigated the relationship between coping strategies and personality
traits. The results indicated that personality traits such as neuroticism
were associated with emotional oriented coping in major depressive disorder.
College being a time where stress
is often evident, health status is likely to be affected. A five-year
study, by Kobasa and editors (1982), examined the role of hardiness and
its interaction with stressful life events in relation to present health
status. Hardiness is shown to be indirectly related to less illness
development in the presence of stressful life events, supporting the concept
of hardiness as a resistance resource.
Testing by Rhodevault and Agustodttir
(1984), revealed that hardy individuals report more positive self-statements
than low hardy subjects do. Physiologically, high hardy individuals
displayed higher levels of systolic blood pressure during the experimental
period, indicating more active coping efforts.
Another study, conducted by Weidner,
Kohlmann, Dotzauer, and Burns (1996), looked at the effects of academic
stress on health behaviors in young adults. It specifically examined
changes in health behaviors as a function of academic stress. One
hundred and thirty-three college undergraduate students participated and
completed measures of stress, affect, and health behaviors during times
of low and high academic demands. Results suggested those emotional
responses to stress as linked to health behavior changes. When individuals
did not exercise and self-care, it resulted in a decrease in positive affect.
Poor nutrition was also linked to a decrease in positive and increase in
negative affect. While college is a time where freshman students
will be adapting to academic and social demands, it is also a time where
mental and physical well-being changes. Those students with a strong
sense of commitment, control, and challenge may adapt better to college
in terms of how they perceive life stressors.
Hardiness, Personality, and Stress
Past research has demonstrated
a direct relationship between hardiness, personality, and stress.
Stokes and Arlene (1998) examined the effect of hardiness in the stress-health
relationship using a longitudinal design. It specifically assessed
the specific role of hardiness by measuring the relations of hardiness
to the functionally similar constructs of optimism and pessimism and coping
style. Assessments were completed at two points in time and comparisons
were made between those data. Relationships were found among hardiness,
optimism, pessimism, and disengaged coping. Hardiness was significantly
related to two mental health measures, psychological well-being and psychological
distress but not to the physical health variable, health perception.
Dillon and Trotten (1989), demonstrated
hardiness is positively related to maternal coping, humor, and age, and
inversely related to upper respiratory infection incidence in infants.
Research in the field of hardiness has led to understanding of Wellness
therapy. Wellness therapy focuses on treating various physical and
mental illnesses by examining personalities that may or may not exhibit
characteristics of hardiness. Maddi, Kahn, Maddi (1992), suggests
that hardiness protects wellness and stimulates effective functioning despite
stressful circumstances. In evaluating the effectiveness of hardiness
training, results show that hardiness training is more effective than the
other types of training. There existed an increase in self-reported
hardiness, job satisfaction, and social support, while self-reported strain
and illnesses severity decreased. This suggests hardiness is important
in stress management.
Skirka (1997) investigated the
moderating effects of personality (hardiness and sense of coherence), sports
participation, and gender on the relationship between perceived stress
and psychological symptoms. Results showed a significant positive
correlation between perceived stress and psychological symptoms among college
varsity athletes as well as with college non-athletes. There
was also a significant positive correlation between the personality scales
of Hardiness and sense of coherence for both college varsity athletes and
college non-athletes. When controlling for gender, college varsity
athletes, on the average, scored significantly higher on hardiness, significantly
higher on sense of coherence, and reported significantly less perceived
stress and significantly fewer psychological symptoms than the college
non-athletes.
The effects of hardiness
have also been linked to the drug field in regards to coping with addiction.
A study conducted by Hirky (1998) interviewed injection drug users in an
urban methadone program to examine whether coping serves as a mediator
of the relationship between social support, personality hardiness, and
psychological distress. Results indicated the relationship between
hardiness and distress was fully mediated through lower levels of a latent
construct measured by behavioral disengagement and denial coping.
The path from hardiness to coping was significant, as was the path from
coping to distress. Direct effects to distress were found for social
support, life events, and gender. Whether stress is a direct result
from a biological dependency or social environments, people who exhibit
characteristics of a hardy personality will better cope with that stress.
Kolbo (1996) examined risk
and resilience among children exposed to family violence. Resilience,
vulnerability, and protective factors were expected to mediate the effects
of exposure to family violence on children's emotional and behavioral development.
Results showed that the effects of exposure to family violence were related
to childrens self-worth, and behavior problems. The effects of exposure
to family violence was positively correlated with behavioral problems among
girls and negatively correlated with self-worth among boys. High
levels of support protected only boys from the effects of exposure to family
violence.
Hypothesis
Based on the research cited
above, there are clear relationships between athletes, gender, and hardiness
and adjustment. Given this research it is hypothesized that there
will be a relationship between hardiness and college adjustment, while
the data are not clear as to gender, this will be investigated further.
Participants
Data was collected from twenty-eight
freshman college students (16 females, 12 males) these students were volunteer
participants in various senior undergraduate thesis for credit.
Procedures
The twenty-eight freshman
college students participated in filling out both the Hardiness Scale and
the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire. Questionnaires were
completed in the presence of this investigator at students residences.
Materials
Materials include a Student Adaptation
to College Questionnaire (Baker @ Siryk, 1989) and a Hardiness Scale (Bartone,
Ursano, Wright, @ Ingraham, 1989).
The Hardiness Scale is designed
to measure dispositional resilience, the hardiness of ones personality.
Hardiness is considered to relate to how one approaches and interprets
experiences. Three components of hardiness serve as sub-scales for
the Hardiness Scale: commitment, which refers to imputed meaning and purpose
to self, others, and work; control, a sense of autonomy and influence on
ones future; and challenge, a zest and excitement for life which is perceived
as opportunities for growth. Hardiness has been shown to relate to
how people process and cope with stressful events. In stressful situations,
hardiness has been shown to be associated with high levels of well-being.
Hardiness scale scores were predictive of mental and physical health.
Scores are sensitive to measuring change due to the level of stressful
events.
The Student Adaptation to College
questionnaire assesses how well students are able to adapt to the college
environment considering the many types of stressors that will arise.
The Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire focuses on the quality
of the students adjustment to-rather than an evaluation of-that environment.
The essential interest is in assessing how the student is adjusting to
that environment. The Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire
is divided into four principle sub-scales that focus on certain aspects
of adjustment to college. The academic adjustment sub-scale refers
to various educational demands characteristic of the
college experience. The social
adjustment is relevant to the interpersonal societal demands inherent in
adjustment to college. The personal-emotional adjustment sub-scale
determines how the student is feeling psychologically and physically.
The goal commitment/institutional attachment sub-scale is designed to explore
the students feelings about being in college, in general, and the college
he or she is attending, in particular.
Those students who adapt well
to college will exhibit a stronger sense of commitment, control, and challenge.
The study conducted, consisted of twenty-eight fist semester, white college
freshman students. There were sixteen females and twelve males.
All the students ranged from ages eighteen to twenty. All students
participated in filling out a Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire
along with a Hardiness Scale.
The Adaptation to College
Questionnaire was used to evaluate the levels of adaptation in freshman
college students. The mean score was 48.5 with a maximum score of
75.0, a minimum score of 33.0, and a standard deviation of 9.0. The
mean score for the females was 41.2 and the mean score for the males was
45.1.
The Hardiness Scale measured
levels of hardiness by breaking it into three sub-scales: commitment, control,
and challenge. The mean score was 109.1 with a maximum score of 124.0,
a minimum score of 83.1, and a standard deviation of 9.3. The
mean scores for each of the sub-scales is as follows: Commitment 29.0,
control 27.0, and challenge 25.1. The mean scores for the females
and the males were not obtained and is discussed further in the discussion.
After conducting a pearson
correlation, results showed relationship between the overall hardiness
score and the overall adaptation to college score. This relationship
was approaching significance, p<.35.
This study has revealed significant
results in different components of the hypothesis. The hypothesis
of this study postulated that those students with higher levels commitment,
control, and challenge, which make up hardiness, will also exhibit higher
levels of college adaptation. Two different forms of assessments
was used to examine the participants perceived understanding of life stressors
and adaptation to college.
The normative data for the Hardiness
Scale are currently being developed by Paul Bartone, however the Hardiness
Scale was studied originally with 164 military disaster assistance officers,
93% of whom were male, 85% white, with a median age of 34. The internal
consistency coefficients were .62, .66, and .82 for the challenge, commitment,
and control sub-scales. The total summated of the Hardiness Scale
had an alpha of .85. The validity of the Hardiness Scale scores,
which were developed from a pool of seventy-six items, correlated with
the seventy-six item versions total scores, p=.93.
The normative data for the Student
Adaptation to College Questionnaire are calculated for both the females
and the males due to significant sex and semester effects on at least some
of the SACQ variables. The standard scores utilized for the Full
Scale and each of the sub-scales is the T-score which had a mean of 50
and a standard deviation of 10. The reliability for the sixty-seven
item version used, had coefficient alpha values for each sub-scale: .81
to .90 for Academic Adjustment, .83 to.91 for Social Adjustment, .77 to
.86 for Personal-Emotional Adjustment, .85 to .91 for Attachment, and .92
to .95 for the Full Scale. The validity for the SACQ consists of,
Academic Adjustment/Social Adjustment .45 and .39; Academic Adjustment/Personal-Emotional
Adjustment .60 and .55; and Social Adjustment/Personal-Emotional Adjustment
.49 and .42.
The results from the two forms
of assessment demonstrates a positive correlative relationship between
the overall hardiness score and the overall score of the student adaptation
to college questionnaire. This suggests that freshman college students
with a strong sense of commitment, control, and challenge do adapt better
to college life. Although this study did not examine gender differences
specifically, further research in this area would be interesting.
The sub-scales of the two assessments used were also correlated, however
a significant relationship was not found.
Future research in this area
may want to distinguish between athletes and non-athletes and also look
at adjustment over four years to look for trends over time. A bigger
sample size may also aid research in this area to obtain more conclusive
data regarding hardiness and adaptation. Although gender was not
specifically examined due to attempts to preserve confidentiality, it also
is suggested for further research.
Informed Consent and Rights of Research Participants in the Department of Psychology at Saint Anselm College
All psychological research at Saint Anselm College is conducted according to strict ethical principles outlined by the American Psychological Association and is in full compliance with the federal Law. The Department of Health and Human Services, for example, specifies that informed consent must be given prior to research studies, that is, the knowing consent of an individual or legally authorized representative so situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice without undue inducement or any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, or other form of constraint or coercion.
Simply put, this means when you practice in any research study, you will be given a clear explanation of the procedures involved. You may ask for clarification either before or during the procedure, and you may terminate the procedures at any time.
This project includes two paper and pencil tasks and will require about a half an hour of your time to complete. Both tasks are assessment questionnaires addressing issues related to you and your functioning in college. Results will be presented without any reference to your identity. That is, your work will remain confidential between me and my supervisor.
After having carefully read and
considered the foregoing, I consent to participate in research activities
according to the terms heretofore enumerated.
Date________________ Signature_________________
Class/Student I.D.# _____________
Other___________
Debriefing Statement: The relationship
between Hardiness and College Adaptation
This study examined how individuals,
specifically freshman college students, adapt to stresors that accompany
college characteristics that aids adaptation to college life. Your
participation in my thesis experiment will help find and understand the
relationship between stress related to college life and associated personality
characteristics. If you have any questions, or would like to obtain
the results, please do not hesitate to contact me: Elizabeth Gonnella,
Saint Anselm College, 100 Saint Anselm College Drive, Manchester New Hampshire
03102, PO Box 602, phone # (1-603-656-6113), egonnell@anselm.edu.
Date___________________
Signature________________
Appendix 3
Appendix 4
Carpenter, Bruce N.(ED)(1992). Personal
Coping:
Theory, research, and application.
Westport, CT, USA: Praeger Publishers/Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc viii,
268pp.
Cooper, Cary L. (ED); Payne, Roy (ED) (1991). Personality and stress: Individual differences in the stress process. Wiley series on studies in occupational stress. Chichester, England UK: John Wiley @ Sons viii,289pp.
Dillon, K. M., @ Trotten, M. C. (1989). Psychological factors, immunocompetence, and health of breast feeding mothers and their infants. Journal of General Psychology, 150(2), 155-162pp.
Dixon, Wayne A., Heppner, Paul P., Anderson, Wayne P. (1991). Problem-Solving Appraisal, Stress, Hopelessness, and Suicide Ideation in a College Population. Journal of Counseling Psychology, Vol.38, No.1, 51-56pp.
Hirky, Anne Elizabeth (1998). Hardiness, Social support, and coping among injection drug users. Dissertation Abstracts International Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, Vol.59 (5-B):2419pp.
Kobasa, S. (1982). The hardy personality: Towards a social psychology of stress and health. In J. Suls @ G. Senders (Eds.), Social psychology of health and illnesses (pp.3-33). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Kolbo, Jerome R. (1996). Risk and Resilience among children exposed to family violence. Violence and Victims, Vol11 (2):113-128pp.
Maddi, Salvatore R., Kahn, Stephen, Maddi, Karen L. (1992). The Effectiveness of Hardiness Training. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, Vol.50, No.2, 78-86pp.
Maddi, S. R., @ Kobasa, S. (1984). The hardy executive: Health under stress. Homewood, IL: Dow Jones-Irwin.
Mathis, Michele; Lecci, Len (1999). Hardiness and College Adjustment: Identifying students in need of services. Journal of College Student Development, Vol.40(3) 305-309pp.
Muhar, I.S. (1974). Effect of stress on perception. Indian Journal of Psychology, Vol.49(4) 291-297pp.
Rhodewalt, F., @ Aguatsdottir, S. (1984). On the relationship of hardiness to the type A behavior pattern: Perception of life events versus coping with life events. Journal of Research in Personality, 18, 212-223pp.
Ryff, Carol D., Heidrich, Susan M. (1997). Experience and Well-being: Explorations on Domains of Life and How they Matter. The International Journal of Behavioral Development,20(2), 193-206pp.
Stokes, Crowe, Arlene, Linda (1998). Hardiness, one of the several personality constructs thought to affect health. Dissertation Abstracts International Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, Vol. 59(5-B):2438pp.
Uehara, Toru; Sakado, Kaoru; Sakado, Miwako; Sato, Tetsuya; Someya, Toshiyuki (1999). Relationship between stress coping and personality in patients with major depressive disorder. Psychotherapy @ Psychosomatics, Vol. 68(1) 26-30pp.
Weidner, Gerdi; Elke Dotzauer, Carl-Walter
Kohlmann; Burns, Lawrence R. (1996). The Effects of Academic Stress
on Health Behaviors in Young Adults. Anxiety, Stress, and Coping,
Vol. 9, 123-133pp.