I Had My Senior Year Taken From Me: Understanding Emerging Adults' Coping Strategies while Transitioning to College during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Times of transition are laden with ambiguity, and the move from high school to college has an additional component of role changes to add to this uncertainty. In the spring and summer of 2020, this transition was disrupted by the changes brought on by the pandemic, affecting social norms, routines, and overall mental health outcomes. For professionals such as counselors and advisors to be able to provide specialized support, it is important to understand emerging adults' experiences at this time and to identify factors that helped them cope with this transition. Understanding the development of coping strategies has direct implications for both therapy and clinical practice which can work together to provide a higher quality of care for the people affected by the stress of major life transitions. In this study, I used a mixed-methods design to understand the experience of emerging adults who graduated high school during the pandemic, and the relation between tolerance for ambiguity and coping strategies, resilience, and psychological impact.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Human Development

Department dc:contributor.department

Adult Learning and Human Resource Development

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Begley, Caroline

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Wesche, Rose

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Jackson, Jeffrey Brown
• Sanner, Caroline

• Emerging Adulthood
• Tolerance For Ambiguity
• Coping
• Resiliency
• COVID-19

Statement dc:rights

• Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:37121

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/115052