Adjustment is a process of dealing with the tensions, stress, conflicts and meeting the individual’s needs. Students come from different backgrounds with their own norms and values, to join a new educational institution they require molding their behaviour to fit in the institution (Robinson, 2009). In the process of adjustment, the individual try to develop and maintain a smooth relationship with its environment. Almost every new student in university environment go through an adjustment phase with his or her own pace of development The adjustment level of each student is different from the others depending on the age wise development of the student (Dyson & Renk, 2006).

During the transition period from college life to university life, students may face many challenges including new environment, teachers, friends, lifestyle and changed academic setup. According to Lapsley and Edgerton (2002) if students do not successfully manage these new challenges in university ultimately they come to be more vulnerable to anxiety and depression. McDermott and Pettijohn (2011) summarized that throughout the world, there is very high rate of psychological indisposition among the students entering the university. Crede and Niehorster (2012) described the four dimensions of adjustment. i.e. institutional commitment, social adjustment, personal-emotional adjustment and academic adjustment. Social adjustment is of great importance for everyone rather for undergraduate students passing through the individualization process from their family and home. Social support has been found the most significant factor in minimizing the depression, loneliness and anxiety of undergraduate students (Tao, Dong, Hunsberger & Pancer, 2000). Students’ social adjustment in university has direct relationship with their overall adjustments (Raju & Rahamtulla (2007). According to Dyson and Renk (2006) social adjustment of students can be defined in terms that how much students’ participate in social events and being satisfied with the social environment of the university.

When students enter into university life they are expected to adjustment of academic habits and work harder to face many new academic challenges i.e. lengthy class duration, different teaching techniques, heavy assignments etc. (Round, 2005). Students are not sure about their abilities to meet the new challenges of new environment of the university where they have to learn to think independently and not to rely on their teachers or parents for their course work (Robinson, 2009). They need to form new social relations to meet the increased academic demands (Monroe, 2009).

It is a known fact and will be agreed upon by anyone who has ever been a student of university, that the undergraduate students face experiences involving adjustment on several levels (Clark, 2005). Students joining university today are the most diverse population in term of their gender, age, socioeconomic status, ethnic composition, family background, native languages and level of academic preparation (Hurtado & Pryor, 2006).

The diversity in the population of university students creates a complex and a dynamic environment where new students enrolled in BS programs, are exposed to multiple situations, responsibilities, choices, challenges and decisions which they need to learn to deal with and to adjust to the new environment (Kerr, Johnson, Gans, & Krumrine, 2004). Hence it is need of the time to study the social adjustment as well as academic adjustment of the newly enrolled university students.

Objectives of the Study

Following were the objectives of the study:

1. To explore the social adjustment of the university students of BS programs.

2. To investigate the academic adjustment of the university students of BS programs.

3. To find out the relationship between social and academic adjustment of university students of BS programs.

1. What is gender-wise level of social adjustment as well as academic adjustment of BS programs’ students in University of Sargodha?

2. What is the residence wise level of social adjustment as well as academic adjustment of students of University of Sargodha?

3. What is the locality wise i.e. Urban and Rural, level of social adjustment as well as academic adjustment of students of University of Sargodha?

4. What is the difference of social adjustment as well as academic adjustment of students of University of Sargodha with respect to study semester?

5. What is the difference of social and academic adjustment of self-support or regular students’ in University of Sargodha?

6. What is the difference of social adjustment as well as academic adjustment of students of University of Sargodha with respect to their department?

7. What is the relationship between students’ social adjustment and academic adjustment in University of Sargodha?

This quantitative study was conducted according to the following methodology.

Research Design

The study was correlational and cross-sectional survey technique was used for data collection.

Population and Sampling

University of Sargodha (UOS) is a public sector university in Punjab province of Pakistan. Though it has three campuses i.e. Main campus Sargodha, Bhakar sub-campus and Mianwali sub-campus but Main campus Sargodha was taken as the source of data for this study because the Main Campus has relatively larger number of students enrolled and offer more programs for students to take admission. The population was all the BS students studying in different departments of university of Sargodha.

A representative sample was selected using multistage random sampling from UOS main campus where 9 faculties and 45 departments exist.

1. Using simple random sampling 11 departments were selected from each of nine faculties.

2. Students of 2nd & 8th semester of the selected departments were considered as the students of (first & final year of study) respectively. Because this study was conducted in March/April and university of Sargodha offers admission in students in fall semester and at the time of data collection, students of 2nd semester were junior undergraduates and students of 8th semester were the senior undergraduates. Two departments i.e. department of Physical Therapy (DPT) & Pharmacy) were not included as these departments do not offer semester system.

3. From each selected department 50 students of 2nd & 50 students of 8th semester were selected randomly.

Instruments

There was one research instruments ‘Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ)’ for measurement of social adjustment and academic adjustment of BS students. It had copyrights and was purchased under license number wps-000599 adapted from the author. Originally SACQ consisted of 67 items and was comprised of 4 sub-scales i.e. Personal Emotional Adjustment, Social Adjustment, Attachment and Academic adjustment. Two (2) subscales i.e. Social Adjustment scale and Academic Adjustment scale were selected for the study as per requirement of the study, each sub-scales has 4 factors. A bilingual version of the scales comprising of 41 items were prepared by incorporating Urdu (the national language) translation of each item for the better understanding of the respondents. The word ‘College’ in the scales was replaced with ‘University’ as the respondents of the study were the University students. The response options for each item were strongly agreed, agreed, un-decided, disagreed and strongly disagreed, instead of original 9 points rating.

Data collection was carried out by administering SACQ to the Total 550,

selecting 50 students of the 2^nd semesters and 50 BS students of 8^th semesters in the selected departments and ensured them the confidentiality of their information.

Data Analysis

Data were quantitatively analyzed through SPSS calculating percentages, mean

Scores and standard deviation; moreover t-test, one way ANOVA and Pearson correlation to explore the social and academic adjustments of the students.

Data Analysis and Interpretation

An index score for social adjustment of each student was created by summing up all the scores of social adjustment scale. The minimum score in this index was 21, indicating the lowest overall social adjustment level, and 81, indicating the highest overall social adjustment level. The mean score of the index was 54.34 and standard deviation 9.83. This index was categorized into three levels i.e. low, moderate and high such as standard deviation was subtracted from the mean index score and first category was formed i.e. low level (mean index score ?44); standard deviation was added up into the mean index score and second category was formed i.e. moderate level (mean index score, 45-64) and mean index score (>65) were considered the high social adjustment level.

Table 1. Gender-Wise Students’ Social Adjustment Level

Table 1 shows the students’ social adjustment level with respect to gender. There were 10.5% male students and 18.2% female students had low level social adjustment, while 70.7% male students and 67.5% female students had moderate level social adjustment. The remaining 18.8% male students and 14.4% female students had high level social adjustment. Majority of students 68.55% had moderate level social adjustment.

Table 2. Current Residence Wise Students’ Social Adjustment Level

Table 2 shows that there were 64.4% male students and 71.7% female students had moderate level social adjustment, while14.8%% male students and 16.2% female students had low level social adjustment. The remaining 20.8% male students and 12.1%female students had high level social adjustment. Majority of students 68.55% had moderate level social adjustment.

Table 3. Locality Wise Students’ Social Adjustment Level

Table 3 shows that there were 67.8% male students and 69.2% female students had moderate level social adjustment, while14.6%male students and 16.6%female students had low level social adjustment. The remaining 17.6% %male students and 14.2% female students had high level social adjustment. Majority of students 68.55% had moderate level social adjustment.

Table 4. Students’ Social Adjustment Level Based on Their Study Duration

Table 4 shows that there were 64.4% students of 2^nd semester and 72.7% students of 8^th semester had moderate level social adjustment, while 20% students of 2^nd semester and 11.3% 8^th semester students had low level social adjustment. The remaining 15.6%% 2^nd semester students and 16% 8^th semester students had high level social adjustment. Overall majority of students 68.55% had moderate level social adjustment.

Factor Wise Analysis of Students’ Responses

Table 5. Gender & Factor Wise Comparison of Students’ Social Adjustment

Table 5 shows that opinions of male & female BS students with respect to factor “General” (social adjustment) were statistically significant as indicated by t-value = 2.786, df= 548 and p-value = 0.006 < ?=.05. The opinions of male & female students were also significantly different with respect to factor “Other people” as indicated by t-value = 1.982, df= 548 and p-value = 0.048 < ?=.05. But male and female students have no difference of opinion about the factors “social environment” & “Nostalgia” of social adjustment scale. Overall there was significant difference of opinion about social adjustment between male and female students as indicated by t-value = 2.1, df = 549 and p-value = 0.02 < ?=.05. Higher mean score 55.59 and SD = 10.84 shows that male students had better social adjustment than female BS students with mean score 53.72 and SD = 9.24.

Table 6. Students’ Residence & Factor Wise Comparison of Students’ Social Adjustment

Table 6 shows that boarders (M=6.56, SD=2.43) have significantly different opinions as compared to day-scholars (M=5.60, SD=2.22) with respect to factor “Nostalgia” (social adjustment) as indicated by t-value = (4.820), df= 548 and p-value = 0.000 < ? =.05. But the opinions of border students and day-scholar students were not significantly different about all other factor of social adjustment scale i.e. “general”, “other people” and “social environment”. Overall there was significant difference of social adjustment between boarders and day-scholar BS students as indicated by t-value = 2.369, df = 548 and p-value = 0.018. Higher mean score 55.47 and SD = 10.12 shows that boarder students had better social adjustment than day-scholars (mean score = 53.4 & SD = 9.53)

Table 7 shows the factor wise & locality wise comparison of students’ social adjustments with respect to four factors. Students from rural & urban areas had no significant difference of opinion with respect to factors of social adjustment i.e. “General”, “Other People” “Nostalgia” and “Social Environment” as indicated by p-values 0.988, 0.738, 0.629 and 0.997> ?=0.05 respectively. Overall rural and urban BS students had no significant difference of social adjustment as indicated by t-value = -0.098, df = 548 and p-value = 0.922 > ? = .05.

Table 8. Study Duration & Factor Wise Comparison of Students’ Social Adjustment

Table 8 shows the factor wise difference in social adjustment of 2^nd semester & 8^th semester students with respect to four factors of social adjustment. Students of 2^nd & 8^th semester had no significant difference of social adjustment with respect to factors ‘General’, ‘ Other People’ & ‘Nostalgia’ with p-values 0.300, 0.067& 0.367 > ? = 0.05 respectively.

Statistical significant difference was found in the opinions of 2^nd semester (M=6.72, SD=2.15) and 8^th semester students’ (M=7.15, SD=2.06) with respect to factor ‘Social Environment’ as t = -2.383), df= 548 and p = 0.018< ?=.05. 8^th semester students had better opinion about ‘social environment’ in university than 2^nd semester students. Overall there was significant difference of social adjustment between 2^nd and 8^th semester BS students as indicated by t-value = -2.00, df = 548 and p-value = 0.046 < ? = .05. Greater mean score 55.17 and SD = 9.12 shows that 8^th semester BS students had better social adjustment than 2^nd semester BS students with mean score 53.50 and SD = 10.44.

Table 9. Gender & Factor Wise Comparison of Students’ Academic Adjustment

Table 9 shows the gender wise & factor wise difference between the opinions of female and male students about academic adjustment. Male & female students had significantly different ‘academic motivation’ which is a factor of academic adjustment as indicated by t = -2.157, df = 548 at p=.031< 0.05. The greater mean score 21.72 shows that female students had better ‘academic motivation’ than male students with mean score 21.01. Further male and female students had no difference of opinion about other factors of academic adjustment i.e. ‘academic application’, ‘academic performance’ and academic achievement as apparent from the p-values .672, .621 and .504.

Overall male and female BS students had no significantly different academic adjustment as indicated by t-value = -1.059, df = 548 and p-value = 0.290 > ?=.05.

Table 10. Students’ Residence & Factor Wise Comparison of Students’ Academic Adjustment

Table 10 shows that boarders and day-scholar students had no significantly different opinion about all the four factors of social adjustment i.e. academic application, academic environment, academic performance and academic motivation with p-values, .756, .795, .208 and .130 respectively.

Table 11 shows that academic adjustment of rural and urban areas students was not significantly different with respect to all four factors of social adjustment i.e. academic application, academic motivation, academic environment and academic performance with p-values, 0.738, 0.988, 0.997 and 0.629 respectively. Overall rural and urban BS students had no significantly different academic adjustment as indicated by t-value =.277, df = 548 and p-value = 0.782 > ?=.05.

Table 12 shows factor & semester wise comparison of academic adjustment of students. It shows that academic adjustment of 2^nd & 8^th semester students had no opinion difference with respect to the factors of academic adjustment i.e. “academic motivation”, “academic application”, “academic performance” and “academic environment” with p-values: 0.596, 0.287, 0.231 and 0.679 respectively. Overall 2^nd and 8^th semester BS students had no significantly different opinion about academic adjustment as indicated by t-value = -.198, df = 548 and p-value = 0.843 > ?=.05.

Table 13. One-Way ANOVA for Comparison of Social Adjustment With Respect to Students’ Department

In table 13 One Way ANOVA exposed that social adjustment of BS students from different departments of the University of Sargodha was not significantly different as indicated by F (10,539) = 1.177, p=0.303 > ? =0.05.

Table 14. One-Way ANOVA for Comparison of Academic Adjustment with Respect to Students’ Department

In table 14 One Way ANOVA exposed that academic adjustment of BS students from different departments of the University of Sargodha was not significantly different as indicated by by F = 0.991, p=0.450 > ? =0.05.

N=550

Table 15 shows the descriptive statistics for students’ social adjustment (n=550) (M=54.338, SD=9.83) and academic adjustment (n=550) (M=79.045, SD=9.27) and Pearson’s r data analysis revealed a moderate positive correlation, as indicated by r (548) = .461, p = .000 < ? = 0.05

Conclusions drawn from data analysis are as follows:

1. Majority of BS students had moderate level social adjustment. Similarly majority of students had moderate level academic adjustment studying in university of Sargodha.

2. Male BS students were more social and had better participation in social activities than female BS students studying in university of Sargodha. Similarly day scholars were more nostalgic than boarder students studying in university of Sargodha.

3. Female university students were more motivated towards educations than male students.

4. Boarding students had better social adjustment than day scholars. But boarding students and day scholars studying in university of Sargodha had same level of academic adjustment.

5. The social adjustment of male students, boarding students and 8th semester BS students were better than female students, day scholar and 2nd semester’s students respectively. BS students had same level of social adjustment of students with respect to locality. Similarly BS students had same level of academic adjustment with respect to gender, locality, residence and duration of study.

6. The relationship between social and academic adjustment of undergraduate students was moderate positive. It means that when social adjustment is higher, academic adjustment is also higher.

1. There exist a significant difference in social adjustment of students with respect to gender; male students had better social adjustment than female students. The possible reason might be that the male students spend more time at university campus and have larger social circle as verified by Al-Qaisy (2010) in findings of a study “Adjustment of college freshmen: The importance of gender and the place of residence” reported that that male students are able to adjust themselves more than female students because of more talent of social relations with the others in university than the female students. But female and male students had no difference of academic adjustment. The reason for this might be that both male and female students are exposed to similar conditions of academic activities hence there was found no difference in their academic adjustment as verified by Al-khatib, Awamleh and Samawi (2012) in their study “Student's adjustment to college life at Albalqa Applied University” that no association exist in the students’ adjustment to college life based on their gender.

2. Social adjustment of boarding students was better than social adjustment of day-scholar. the reason might be that the boarding students had chances to spend more time and had opportunities to mix with other students in comparison to day scholar students as verified by Ogini and Ofodile (2014) in their study “Social Adjustment, Academic Motivation and Self Concept differential between Residential and Non-Residential Senior Secondary School Student In Abeokuta Metropolis, Ogun State, Nigeria” It was reported that residential students (boarding students) possess higher level of social adjustment in comparison to non-residential students (day-scholar). But boarders and day-scholar students had no difference of academic adjustment.

3. The relationship between the social adjustment as well as academic adjustment of BS students was moderate and positive. The possible reason for this correlation might be that the students with better social adjustment will have better chances and opportunities to focus on their academic activities and similarly the students with better academic adjustment will be able to maintain close ties with their peers and faculty and will be able to participate in co-curricular activities with more confidence as verified by DE Rosier and Lloyd (2010) in their study “The Impact of Children's Social Adjustment on Academic Outcomes”. That a positive relationship existed in the students’ social adjustment and different areas of academic adjustment. i. e. higher the social adjustment better is the academic adjustment and academic performance.

It is recommended that in university many students were not able to mix well with the opposite gender. Therefore, it is recommended that students may be provided with more opportunities of seminars, group discussion and group assignments with specific focus on assigning the combine academic activities i.e. both male and female students be included in such groups.