The Association of Emotional Blackmail and Adjustment to College Life Among Warned Female Students at Al-Balqa University Students

Abstract

The present study aimed to identify the association between emotional blackmail and college adjustment among warned female students at Al-Balqaa Applied University. It was a descriptive correlational study that included recruiting all warned female students at Al-Balqaa Applied University (BAU) (n=357) during the beginning of the second semester of the academic year 2019/2020. The study adopted the emotional abuse scale developed by Neil Jacobson and John Gottman. The questionnaire consisted of 28 items and the college adjustment test (CAT) developed by Pennebaker (2013). The test comprised 19 items. The collected data were analyzed statistically using the Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) (v. 26 IBM Corporation). The study’s findings showed that warned female students had a high level of emotional blackmail (2.90±0.799). In addition, the results indicated that there is a low level of college adjustment among the warned female students (3.62±0.736). Finally, the study showed a strong and significant inverse correlation between emotional blackmail and college adjustment among warned female students at Al-Balqa Applied University. Therefore, the study recommended increasing the students’ awareness and knowledge about coping strategies to overcome the effects of emotional blackmail and increase their college adjustment.