The transition to college can be a difficult time as students adjust to new social and academic demands while adapting to new living circumstances in a collegiate environment. The ability of students to cope with the stress of such a transition and display positive outcomes despite challenges has important implications for psychosocial well-being as well as academic success. The present study examined the relative impact of four domains that have been shown to promote resilience in the face of stress in order to determine the extent to which each factor predicted student stress independent of all other factors. First-year college students from four universities completed measures assessing their perceived level of stress as well as their social connectedness, self-care behaviors, cognitive style, and life skills. Results revealed that social support and cognitive styles characterized by optimism significantly and uniquely predicted lower stress among students. Findings are discussed in relation to the development of university-based programs to promote the skills and characteristics that are most likely to result in positive outcomes for students during the transition to college.

CME Educational Objectives 1. Understand the various stressors experienced by college students. 2. Learn how stress, resilience, and mental health in college are interrelated. 3. Explore how resilience education can improve the mental health of college students. The transition to college can be an exciting, albeit stressful, time in students’ lives, as many begin living apart from family and friends for the first time and must adapt to new and increasingly demanding academic, social, and financial pressures while adjusting to life in an unfamiliar environment. As a result of this transition, first-year college students tend to experience greater stress, anxiety, and psychological distress (eg, depression) relative to upperclassmen. 1 The extent to which students are able to cope with stressors during the first year of college has important implications not only for their social-emotional adjustment, but also for the likelihood of their academic success and persistence in postsecondary education. 2

This research was supported, in part, by a grant from the National Institute for Mental Health (5R44MH07071‐03) awarded to Dr. Melissa E. DeRosier. Additional support comes from an Institute of Education Sciences post‐doctoral fellowship training award to the University of Florida (R324B1200002). The research was conducted at 3‐C Institute. The authors thank the staff and students of the Wake County Public School System in North Carolina for their cooperation and support in the implementation of this research project. In addition, the authors thank Drs. Janey McMillen, Natalie O'Brian, and Melanie Wilson for their invaluable efforts as project coordinators, as well as the many interns of the 3‐C Institute for their assistance in successfully completing this research project.

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To understand socialization pathways in the development of specific, self‐relevant emotions, we examined the socialization of third‐grade children's experience and expression of pride in a sample of 196 mother–child dyads, including children's gender and race as instantiations of cultural contexts. Mothers' self‐reported beliefs about the value of positive emotions, beliefs about the value of negative emotions, and positive expressivity within the family were examined in relation to Black and White boys' and girls' own reported feelings and expressions of pride in response to five vignettes. Results revealed that mothers' beliefs and expressive behaviour were associated with their children's feelings of pride, but were not significantly associated with children's expressing pride in the vignettes. Socialization processes seemed similar across child gender and race, with the one exception of maternal value of positivity being differently associated with children's pride expression by race. Results exploring gender and race as cultural contexts indicated that mothers' beliefs and expressivity varied little by child gender, but did by race; Black mothers reported valuing positive emotions more so than White mothers. Children reported pride differences in the vignettes by both gender and race, with female and Black children reporting feeling and expressing pride more so than male and White children. These findings suggest parental and cultural roles in the socialization of how children feel and express pride.