Investigating success in the transition to university: A systematic review of personal risk and protective factors influencing psychosocial success

Abstract

Navigating the transition to university is a challenge for many students with numerous negative consequences if not successful. The current literature body is disparate and contains numerous methodological and analytical inconsistencies that makes it difficult to identify the most salient and effective factors that help predict transition success for students. The present study provides a systematic review of quantitative research linking personal level risk and protective factors to psychosocial success outcomes in the transition to university. Previous work has investigated factors influencing more traditional success metrics (e.g., academic achievement, completion, etc.) but the factors influencing, arguably more holistic, psychosocial success metrics (e.g., wellbeing) should also be understood. This is part of a larger review, following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) and Synthesis Without Meta-analysis (SWiM) guidelines, preregistered on the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO, CRD42022330515), searching PsycInfo, Web of Science, and ERIC databases. Records were included if they studied ‘traditional’ first year students transitioning to university and were longitudinal in design and excluded if they looked at specific subgroups of students (e.g., international students). The search yielded 32 articles that were eligible, highlighting 96 purportedly different salient factors which are consolidated to 16 salient elements grouped around five higher order domains. The findings are discussed with a consolidation mindset that to aims to move the research forward towards an evidence-based feasible and pragmatic intervention to enhance the probability of successful student transition to university