This study was designed to determine the extent to which emotional intelligence, social support, self-esteem and coping strategies predict academic adjustment of first year university undergraduates in Rivers State, Nigeria. Correlation design was adopted for the study. Seven research questions and seven corresponding hypotheses guided the conduct of the study at 0.05 alpha levels. A sample of 382 first year university undergraduates of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt, 2015/2016 academic session was chosen for the study through simple and proportional stratified random sampling techniques. Five instruments namely; Mangal Emotional Intelligence Inventory, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Coping Strategies Inventory and Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire – Academic subscale were used for data collection. Simple and multiple regression analyses were used for data analysis. All data were subjected to analysis using statistical package for social science (SPSS). Results showed among others that; emotional intelligence, social support, self-esteem and coping strategies taken together significantly predicted academic adjustment of first year university undergraduates. Based on the findings, it was recommended amongst others that; university authorities should introduce personality programmes that will provide training in emotional skills that will help university undergraduates in their overall adjustment to the new university environment.
Keywords: Academic, Adjustment, Psychosocial, Rivers State, Undergraduates, University
