Šeben Zaťková, TímeaTokovská, MiroslavaŠolcová, Jana2025-06-172025-06-1720242073-7629https://doi.org/10.56300/AXLK4968https://repo.umb.sk/handle/123456789/639In: International journal of emotional education : special issue on assessing children's social emotional learning to guide improvement programs. Msida : Centre for resilience and socio-emotional health, 2024. ISSN 2073-7629. Vol. 16, no. 1 (2024), pp. 140-153.Higher education students need help and support to enable them to cope with the challenges of their studies. The aim of this study was to investigate the perspectives of first-year undergraduate students on predictors of psychosocial support in challenging situations. A creative art-based descriptive research design was employed utilising an individual One-Page Profile form to gather data from 240 first-year students from two different universities in Slovakia. Data was collected and analysed using a content-thematic and visual approach. Four significant individual predictors of psychosocial support were identified: emotional, instrumental, informational and appraisal. Emotional support consists of desirable mental health, defined by the students as experiencing happiness, self-satisfaction, self-development, relationships which are satisfying, loving and safe, trust, empathic acceptance, and care from others. Instrumental support varies from personnel up to material resources e.g., people, animals, and assistance such as financial services. The preferred informational support is peer-to-peer counselling, followed by professional counselling. When students describe appraisal support their needs are primarily in the areas of well-being and self-efficacy. The study makes various suggestions on how University staff can provide first-year students with support and counselling in their everyday challenges.enCC BY-NC-ND Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0. Internationalinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesspsychosociálna podporapsychosocial supportštudenti VŠvýtvarné umeniefine artArticle