ACADEMIC ADAPTATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION: COPING STRATEGIES FACING EVALUATION PROCESSES

Abstract

All the time we live experiences, programmed or unexpected, making it necessary to adapt to new circumstances. Since admission to universities and colleges and their new evaluative, structural and bureaucratic formats a break in predictability and control in the life of a large part of the student body, we seek to understand how the evaluation process impacts this experience and what possible coping strategies are triggered in the academic adaptation in the face of the student-evaluation relationship. The quantitative and qualitative research of an applied, exploratory and descriptive nature was carried out in 2021 and used an individual questionnaire with 38 students from the “Social Sciences (Degree)” course at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE) as participants. In this study, low rates were identified in the Personal level of academic experience, marked by a low sense of well-being and physical and mental health, as well as the recurrent association of ratings as a source of mostly negative feelings. At the Study level, female students showed higher percentages to deal with time management and organization and to face stressors arising from the evaluation process more actively. The main coping strategy used is the one focused on the problem, especially among veterans and people who hate to carry out an assessment. There is also a tendency for students with less time at the institution to isolate themselves and not seek social support. In addition, the support provided by the spiritual dimension is shown to be positive due to the ability to promote comfort and resignification of situations, pointing to the importance of self-knowledge and self-care as well-being promoters and protective tools against helplessness requests.