Sense of coherence as resource in transition to University life

The transition to university is a normative critical life-event for emerging adults with access to higher education. This study takes a salutogenetic view to determine positive effects on the freshman's subjective well-being focussing on Antonovsky's sense of coherence (SOC) and following the transactional stress theory of Lazarus. 157 freshmen between 18 and 24 years of age answered a questionnaire about their appraisal of the actual study situation, emotion- and problem-oriented coping, well-being, and SOC. A modification of the SOC-Scale with the same category labels for each item was used for the operationalization of SOC. Structural analyses show that SOC with its components comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness is a direct positive predictor with regard to positive appraisal, problem-oriented coping, and well-being. The results encourage one to regard SOC as a resource to improve the freshman's well-being.