Psychosocial Competencies and Well-Being of University Graduates: A Review

Abstract

The transition from higher education to adult and professional life requires graduates to manage increasingly complex emotional, interpersonal, academic, social and occupational demands. Psychosocial competencies including emotional intelligence, resilience, self-efficacy, and communication, interpersonal skills, decision-making and problem-solving are therefore important resources for adaptive functioning and well-being. This review and synthesis examines conceptual and empirical literature concerning psychosocial competencies and well-being among university students and graduates, with attention to individual competencies, multidimensional well-being, demographic characteristics and contextual factors. The paper is an integrative review rather than a formal systematic review; accordingly, no unreported search counts or PRISMA screening statistics are presented. The literature generally indicates positive associations between emotional intelligence, resilience, self-efficacy and adaptive functioning, while recent reviews provide substantial evidence linking psychological capital including hope, self-efficacy, resilience and optimism with student mental health. At the same time, recent higher-education reviews identify considerable heterogeneity in the conceptualization and measurement of socio-emotional competencies. The literature also remains fragmented regarding the combined contribution of multiple psychosocial competencies to multidimensional well-being among graduates in the Indian socio-cultural context. Greater attention is warranted to gender, academic discipline, locality, parental educational background and social category. The paper proposes an integrated framework linking psychosocial competencies, adaptive functioning and multidimensional well-being and identifies implications for higher education, employability and graduate development.