Stress, social support, and college adjustment among Latino students

This study examined the role of social support and stress on adjustment to college among Latino students. Measures of social support, stress, and adjustment to college were obtained from 77 Latino college students. Social support was positively associated with adjustment and negatively associated with stress. A negative relationship was found between stress and adjustment in bivariate analyses indicating that exposure to stress interferes with adequate adjustment. However, stress did not significantly contribute to adjustment when included with social support in multivariate analyses. The functional nature of support was also examined in this study. Emotional support was associated with better overall and academic adjustment and less stress than instrumental support. there was a significant negative relationship between support from friend/other and stress. Finally, support from friend/other was negatively correlated with stress from exposure to racism. Implications of the study in terms of future research and college programs for Latino students are discussed.