Attachment to Parents, Social Support Expectations, and Socioemotional Adjustment During the High School--College Transition.

The 2 objectives of this study were the following: (a) to evaluate individual variations in table of contents' perceived security to parents, social support expectations, and socioemotional adjustment during the high school-college transition, and (b) to test whether perceived security to parents predicts changes in support expectations and socioemotional adjustment across the transition. A unique aspect of this study was the comparison between adolescents who left home to attend college and those who did not. On 2 occasions, 298 adolescents were met: at the end of high school and during the first semester in college. Perceived security to parents showed high test-retest correlation stability, significantly more than did perceptions of social support and emotional adjustment. During the transition, the adolescents who had left their families to attend college experienced improved means of perceived security, decreased perceptions of social support, and increased feelings of loneliness and social anxiety. Finally, perceived security to parents at the end of high school predicts positive changes in expectations of support and socioemotional adjustment across the transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]