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Abstract
Positive relationships can facilitate the adjustment to college. However, it is uncertain what specific characteristics of college students’ personal networks of fellow college students lead to increased social connectedness and college wellbeing. Thus, the role of emerging personal networks in new students’ transition to and adjustment to college was explored. Participants included 140 University of Georgia first-year students aged 18–24 who identified members of their personal networks between 6 and 11 weeks after arriving to campus. They were then asked a series of questions about those individuals, including demographic information, interaction context(s), and whether they knew the person prior to arriving to campus. They also completed a series of outcome and adjustment measures (e.g., connectedness, college wellbeing). Results indicated that larger personal networks (i.e., more social ties with whom to discuss important matters) predicted higher levels of connectedness and college wellbeing. This effect was more pronounced for men than for women. The number of interaction contexts in which students knew others did not predict connectedness or wellbeing during the initial transition to college. Racial heterogeneity (i.e., having a racially heterogenous personal network) predicted college wellbeing over and above the effect of network size. This effect was more pronounced for non-White (i.e., minority-race) students. Those with no new connections (i.e., all connections in their college network known prior to college) reported lower levels of college wellbeing but similar levels of connectedness compared to their peers with at least half of their network comprised of new connections. Implications are discussed.