Social Media and First-Year Students' Adjustment to College: A Mixed-Methods Study

• In Event: First Year and Early College

Abstract

Student retention continues to be a concern, particularly amongst students from low-socioeconomic backgrounds. Tinto’s (1993) interactional theory of student attrition points to students’ academic and social interactions with classmates and faculty as an important factor related to their decisions to remain in college. Social media have changed the ways in which students interact with one another. This quasi-experimental explanatory sequential mixed-method study explored if students’ academic adjustment was influenced by the use of social media within their learning community. Results indicate that students’ use of GroupMe for academic communications may predict students’ academic adjustment. These findings suggest that social media may have the potential to be a cost-effective tool that encourages a scholarly environment.

Author

• Melanie Ryan Fowler, Florida Southern College