Abstract
A longitudinal study was conducted in order to test the effects of the received support falling short of individuals' expectation on their adaptation and self-esteem. At the beginning of the school year, freshmen at university completed a questionnaire which consisted of scales for adaptations, self-esteem, expectation of support and norm regarding support provision. Support sources were father, mother, an old friend outside campus and a new friend inside campus. After three months, they were asked to complete a questionnaire for adaptations, self-esteem and receipt of support from each support source. They estimated support provision from their old friend to be highly normative. We analyzed the data obtained from the identical support source in both questionnaires. The results showed that freshmen experiencing stress in many times suffered bad effects due to receiving less of supports than they expected of their old friend, while those experiencing stress in a few times suffered bad effects due to receiving more of supports than they expected.
