The Effects of Academic Adjustment, Social Adjustment and Personal-Emotional Adjustment of Students on Their Academic Performance in Universities of Northern Cyprus

Improving academic performance of students during their educational life is a considerable issue for administrators of universities, professors, students and the whole education system. Students face to a new stage of their life while starting their higher education period. This study investigates whether the ability to adapt to higher education is a significant factor in student academic performance. We examine the academic performance of higher education students in Northern Cyprus and we investigate how it may be related with their adjustment to the educational life academically, socially and personally-emotionally. A total number of 200 students participated in the survey. Data on academic-, social- and personal-emotional adjustment of students (Baker & Syrik, 1999) were collected and constituted the study's independent variables and students' academic performance was the dependent variable of the study. Exploratory factor analysis, correlation coefficients and hierarchal multiple regression analysis were applied to test the hypotheses. Implications of the results and suggestions for future research are discussed. Keywords: Academic Performance, Academic Adjustment, Social Adjustment, Personal-emotional Adjustment, Northern Cyprus