Patterns of success: first-year student success in multiple domains

ABSTRACTThe goal of this study was to examine differences in university success between first-year students by analyzing three domains simultaneously: students’ academic achievement, critical thinking disposition, and social–emotional adjustment to university life. Participants were 307 students who completed an online questionnaire. Latent class cluster analysis revealed three patterns of success: (1) average-achieving well-adjusted students (64%), (2) high-achieving average-adjusted students (14%), and (3) low-achieving low-adjusted students (22%). Follow-up ANCOVAs indicated that low-achieving low-adjusted students most strongly experienced that their social life hindered their study, whereas average-achieving high-adjusted students experienced the least interference from their study on their social life. These results indicated that student success is a multi-domain concept, with subgroups of first-year students showing specific patterns of success. The results of this study help to understand the fea...