Perceived barriers to achieving academic and personal goals among incoming public university students: Socio-emotional factors outweigh academic difficulties.

Abstract

The objective of this research was to identify the main barriers perceived by incoming students in the Bachelor’s program in Administration regarding the achievement of their academic and personal goals. A mixed-methods, descriptive, cross-sectional, and non-experimental study was conducted with sixty-four students, who answered an open-ended question about the problems they considered limiting. Through content analysis, 208 units of meaning were identified and grouped into eleven categories and two general dimensions. The results show that 92.8% of the barriers relate to socio-emotional competencies and self-regulation processes, while 7.2% relate to academic or physical difficulties. The study concludes that emotional, interpersonal, organizational, and communication issues predominate, highlighting the need to strengthen institutional programs for university adjustment.