Trajectories of university adjustment in the United Kingdom: Emotion management and emotional self-efficacy protect against initial poor adjustment

• We tested whether there are different patterns of adjustment over Year 1 at university.
• We found four distinct groups of students with distinct patterns of adjustment to university.
• Low emotion management and low emotional self-efficacy predicted membership of the low, stable adjustment group.
• Increasing adjustment was predicted by emotional skills, which helped adaptation.
• Teaching emotional skills may increase adjustment to university, and improve academic success.

Little is known about individual differences in the pattern of university adjustment. This study explored longitudinal associations between emotional self-efficacy, emotion management, university adjustment, and academic achievement in a sample of first year undergraduates in the United Kingdom (N = 331). Students completed measures of adjustment to university at three points during their first year at university. Latent growth mixture modeling identified four trajectories of adjustment: (1) low, stable adjustment, (2) medium, stable adjustment, (3) high, stable adjustment, and (4) low, increasing adjustment. Membership of the low, stable adjustment group was predicted by low emotional self-efficacy and low emotion management scores, measured at entry into university. This group also had increased odds of poor academic achievement, even when grade at entry to university was controlled. Students who increased in adjustment had high levels of emotion management and emotional self-efficacy, which helped adaptation. These findings have implications for intervention.