Wellbeing Among MSU Students

College education provides a meaningful opportunity for students seeking self-discovery and cross-cultural connection. Despite these opportunities, students often encounter challenges associated with adapting to a new environment and social atmosphere. Many experience social isolation and separation from key support systems in addition to academic pressures and adjustment difficulties. These challenges can impact stress levels, resilience levels and overall life satisfaction (Smith & Khawaja, 2011). Similarly, aspects of Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions (power distance, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance in particular) highlight key cross-cultural differences that further influence stress levels in students (Hofstede, 2001). These difficulties and increases in stress are further affected by academic satisfaction, or lack thereof. Resilience, in particular, is a predictor of academic satisfaction in first-generation students (Kashkoush & Lipshits Braziler, 2026). Finally, social belonging and discrimination both have effects on academic success, which may affect wellbeing (Le et al., 2026). International students are the typical sample when examining acculturation and adjustments to different environments. However, freshmen and first-generation students are also adjusting to college cultures for the first time. Despite extensive research on acculturation, fewer studies have directly examined how specific cultural values and language background predict perceived stress among international, first year, transfer and first-generation students compared to other students. The researchers seek to gain further understanding of potential risk factors and protective resources students utilize to adjust to their new environment. This study is being conducted at Murray State University, via an online survey. The researchers hypothesized the following: (H1) International, first year, transfer and first-generation students will report higher uncertainty avoidance and stress compared to other students. (H2) Higher perceived social support will predict higher resilience and life satisfaction in each group. (H3) Types of social support will vary for each group and will be associated with resilience and life satisfaction. Data collection is ongoing and findings will be presented at Scholars' Week. Keywords: First Year, Freshman, First-Generation, Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions, Acculturative Stress, Resilience, Social Support, Satisfaction, Student Wellbeing