Autonomía y ajuste académico: un estudio con estudiantes portugueses de primer año.

Students' psychological autonomy levels play an important role in their adjustment to the pressures and challenges of college life. In this sense, the present descriptive study analyzes the relationships between autonomy levels reached by students at the moment they entered Higher Education and the quality of their academic adjustment at the end of 1st academic year. It was applied the Iowa Developing Autonomy Inventory (IDAI), in the beginning of 1st semester, and the Academic Experiences Questionnaire (AEQ) at the end of that academic year, to a sample of 420 1st year University of Minho students'. Results show that students had quite positive results in what concerns to Time management, Mobility and Interdependence, and lower results in Money management. It was observed some gender effects. On the other hand, the students whose entrance in the Higher Education did not imply family separation, especially male students, present higher levels of academic adjustment. Finally, results suggest that academic adjustment was associated to students' levels of autonomy, in particular in what concerns to Time management, Peer emotional independence and Interdependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]