Post-Secondary Student Resilience During the Transition from Online to In-Person Learning

Abstract

First-year university students are vulnerable to stress associated with the new social and academic environment. These expected challenges increased significantly for students beginning university in September 2022, which marked a shift back to in-person learning for students who completed most of their high school education online. The aim of this study was to examine whether this unique group of first-year students possessed the tools of resilience to the same degree as pre-pandemic groups and if having these or not impacted their transition to university. First-year students were recruited to complete measures of optimism, self-efficacy, resilience, life satisfaction, and academic performance. On average, participants reported moderate levels of resilience, situational optimism, self-efficacy, and life satisfaction, and low dispositional optimism. Situational optimism was the most significantly associated with grade-point average, and dispositional was most significantly associated with life satisfaction. The results indicated that students entering university in the 2022-23 academic year possessed the tools to navigate the transition to university, even amidst significant changes to education brought on by the pandemic. The implications for students, professors, and administrators are considered.