The Role of Person-Major Fit and Autonomy Needs Satisfaction in Class on College Life Adaptation

Students' perceived major fit plays an important role in adaptation to college. The present study examined whether person-major fit, which can become fixed when students start college, predicts college adaptation through its interaction with autonomy need satisfaction, which can be environmentally supported. Correlation and hierarchical regression analyses were conducted based on survey responses from college students (n = 251, 74% female) enrolled in a four-year university in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. The correlation analysis showed that both person-major fit and autonomy need satisfaction were positively related to college life adaptation, especially to attachment to the university. Regression analysis was performed for each of the five domains of college adaptation, including academic adaptation, social adaptation, emotional adaptation, physical adaptation, and attachment to the university, with person-major fit and autonomy need satisfaction as predictors, along with their interaction term. The regression analyses revealed that person-major fit significantly predicted all aspects of college adaptation, except for physical adaptation. Autonomy need satisfaction significantly predicted all aspects of college adaptation, except for social adaptation. The interaction between person-major fit and autonomy need satisfaction was significant in the domains of emotional adaptation and physical adaptation. In other words, even when person-major fit was low, high autonomy need satisfaction in the class played a complementary role in enhancing emotional and physical adaptation. These research findings suggest the need for efforts to create an educational environment that provides opportunities for students with low person-major fit to choose learning methods and types of assignments in the class and to express their opinions freely to enhance their college adaptation.