Incorporating Emotional Skills Content in a College Transition Course Enhances Student Retention

First-semester college students completed college transition courses which incorporated information on emotional, communication, and critical thinking skills. Compared to students who completed first-year experience courses which did not incorporate these applied emotional concepts but also helped students hone communication and critical thinking skills, these students showed a greater increase in the ability to understand, regulate, and harness emotions. At the end of the academic year, the retention rate was significantly higher for those students who had taken the sections with the emotional skills component.