The effect of alienation in the process of adaptation to university life

Purpose: This study is carried out in order to discuss the effect of alienation during the adaptation process of the beginners to university. Method: Descriptive type of the sampling of the study consists of 666 students who were newly registered to the central campus of Usak University in 2014-2105 educational year and determined through stratified sampling method. Personal Information Form, University Life Scale and Student Alienation Scale including socio-demographic questions were used in data collection. Independent sampling t test, ANOVA, Pearson Moments Multiplication correlation, percentage calculation, average, standard deviation, minimum and maximum values were used in data evaluation. Findings: It was identified that more than half of the students were between 17-20 ages and woman. The level of adjustment and adaptation of the students was found moderate. It was identified that adaptation levels of the women to university atmosphere were higher than the boys, relationship with opposite sex and emotional adaptation levels of the boys were lower than the girls, and the students with high-income family had higher overall, academic and social adaptation levels (p<.05). It was identified that total scores about adaptation to university life of the students who lived in cities before university compared to the ones who lived in villages and the students who joined some extracurricular activities compared to the ones who did not were significantly different (p<.05). When Student Alienation levels were compared with some variables like age, sex, extracurricular activities, stress that experienced last 6 months were found significantly different (p<.05). Conclusion: As a result of the study it was determined that a significant negative correlation between levels of adaptation and alienation levels of students. In accordance with these results, in the first year of university education some interventions have to be made to determine the level of adaptation and alienation of the students and appropriate interventions are recommended associated with these results. Key Words: University student, university life, adaptation, alienation