issue 1 09 - APS Member Groups - Australian Psychological Society

Resilience and Adjustment51the issues and challenges expressed by bothgroups were primarily arising from the processof change as a function of transitioning intotertiary study.The findings from Urquhart and Pooley(2007) concur with a study conducted byCantwell, Archer and Bourke (2001)comparing the academic achievement andexperiences of students entering university viatraditional and non-traditional means. Theyfound that age, gender and prior qualificationswere predictive of academic achievement. Theresults indicate that there is a marginaldisadvantage in academic performance asindicated by Grade Point Average (GPA) forstudents entering via non-traditional modessuch as open foundation courses. However,there is a positive effect on adjustment andacademic performance as measured by GPAfor mature entry students, specifically, femalemature entry students. The students mostaffected by the adversities faced on entry touniversity were those younger studentsentering via non-traditional modes. Theauthors argue that the significant variable isnot mode of entry itself, rather it is the natureof non-traditional students’ differing abilities,such as individual motivational goals, selfregulatorybehaviours, self efficacy and verbalabilities (Cantwell et al., 2001). However,mature entry students who discontinued theirundergraduate studies had slightly higherscores on academic achievement indices thanthose mature entry students who remained.This suggests that it is not only academicfactors that influence mature entry students’attrition from university courses. Mature entrystudents may be discontinuing their studies dueto external factors, more than school leaverstudents.Further to this, for mature entrystudents, adjustment to university has alsobeen linked to degree completion and attritionrates at university (Gerdes & Mallinckrodt,1994). In their study Taniguchi and Kaufman(2005) looked at degree completion amongnon-traditional college students and found thatthere are several factors that facilitate or determature entry students from completing theirundergraduate degrees. In contrast to Justice andDornan’s (2001) findings that strategies forlearning increase with age, Taniguchi andKaufman found that being relatively youngfacilitated college completion. Other factorsthey found that facilitated completion includedthe number of prior enrolments a student had,having high cognitive ability, and a high-statusoccupational background, though these factorswere observed for men more than for women.The authors suggest that the gender differenceoccurs as a function of factors commonlyassociated with women’s socio-economic status,such as being divorced and having youngchildren. Marital status does not affectadjustment; however, the major life event of adivorce has been shown to be obstructive toadjustment. The need and desire to spend timewith her children may be the pivotal factor in amother’s decision to discontinue herundergraduate degrees. Indeed, these effectswere found for both genders indicating that theyare just as important in influencing males’course completion and that there is less of adifference between genders as previouslythought.Mature entry students also bring withthem many variations in their abilities andprevious experiences. Each student has theirown background and will thus have variations inthe resources available to them, which of coursecan highly influence their university experiencesocially and academically. In terms of academicstrengths, students with high-status vocationalexperience and increased cognitive ability aresignificantly more likely than those with lowability and low-status vocational experience tocomplete their academic pursuits (Taniguchi &Kaufman, 2005). Differences in cognitivefunctioning significantly differentiate betweenmature entry and school leaver students (Justice& Dornan, 2001) and on average mature entrystudents scored lower on standardised tests(Taniguchi & Kaufman, 2005). The differencesand hardships faced by school leaver and matureThe Australian Community Psychologist Volume 21 No 1 June 2009