SOCIAL SUPPORT AND PSYCHOSOCIAL COMPETENCE - EXPLAINING THE ADAPTATION TO COLLEGE OF ETHNICALLY DIVERSE STUDENTS

Examined relationships among social support, psychosocial competence, and adaptation to college in a sample of 357 African American Asian Am erican, Latino, and white college students. Social support and active coping were significant predictors of adaptation to college, whereas l ocus of control was not. However, there was an interaction between eth nicity and locus of control indicating that although internal African American, Latino, and white students had higher adaptation-to-college scores than external students, the opposite was true for Asian America ns. The relationships among social support, internality, and active co ping were also explored. Satisfaction with social support and internal ity were positively related to active coping, but locus of control and social support were unrelated Active coping and internality were sign ificantly related to each other for all groups except for African Amer icans. Although most relationships were the same across groups, these findings call attention to the role of ethnicity as a moderator of col lege adjustment processes.