Family strengths, Ego-Identity, and school adjustment as perceived by college students

As a primary basic unit of society that provides human beings with mental health, family is a factor significantly affecting school adjustment of college students, who are in late adolescence, along with ego-identity. This study aimed to analyze the associations among such primary variables affecting college students’ school adjustment as family strengths and ego-identity and school adjustment and provide basic data that could help develop interventional programs to improve their school adjustment. 238 college students who spontaneously consented to the purpose of this study were asked to complete a structured questionnaire regarding family strengths, ego-identity, and school adjustment. The collected data were analyzed using an SPSS 23.0 Windows program. All the respondents showed at least the average level of family strengths, egoidentity, and school adjustment. Among the sub-areas of family strengths, respect of family members was at the highest level. Self-acceptance among the sub-areas of ego-identity and school life adjustment among those of school adjustment were at the highest level. Family strengths differed statistically significantly by religion of father and family type. Statistically significant correlations were found among family strengths, ego-identity, and school adjustment. On the basis of these results, it is necessary to develop programs that can improve ego-identity and strengths of the whole family, instead of making a personal approach, with the objective of allowing college students in late adolescence to be better at school adjustment.