Subjective and psychological well-being losses and gains in students transitioning into Higher Education

The transition into higher education is exhilarating and exciting as students anticipate making new friends and taking the first, faltering steps towards independent adulthood and the prologue to a fulfilling career. Yet this can also be a period of stress and mental illhealth. This transition is therefore commonly viewed as eroding students’ well-being and contributing to their psychological distress. The contribution to knowledge this thesis makes is to empirically challenge this view.Systematic reviews of the transition and well-being literature suggest that the transition to higher education can be conceptualised as a period of identity transformation and that students’ well-being includes a strong sense of self as well as optimal psychological functioning. Employing a purely qualitative approach underpinned by a constructivist epistemology, this thesis’ data collection progressed through three empirical studies employing focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews of undergraduate students.Through reflexive, thematic analysis findings suggest that on arrival at university, students experienced feelings of isolation, abandonment and confusion, centred largely on the need to be autonomous, self-learners capable of critically evaluating evidence and engaging inacademic writing. Students’ sense of self, autonomy and mastery of the environment were initially adversely but transiently impacted. Students who successfully progressed beyond their first year of study managed the transition by employing approach, coping mechanisms; students with responsibilities in addition to studying engaged more deeply with academic demands and reached out to teaching staff whereas, school-leavers rapidly formed peer and friendship groups to facilitate their academic integration into their university communities. Through these strategies, students quickly gained the skills required of autonomous learning and experienced psychological gains in self-acceptance, autonomy, meaningful relationships, mastery of themselves and the environment, personal growth and meaning in life.These findings thus challenge the popular notion that the transition into higher education represents a psychological loss phenomenon.