Freshmen college students often experience a dramatic change in activities, values, and personal demands compared to home and previous schooling. To investigate the relationship between psychological maladjustment and stressful life events, locus of control, and social support networks, 62 college freshmen in their first semester of school completed the Life Expectancies Survey, two measures of locus of control (the Nowicki-Strickland generalized scale and the Wallston measure on health locus of control), a social support network map, and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist. An analysis of the results showed that students with high undesirable life events scores and a more external locus of control were more likely than others to experience anxiety, depression, obsession-compulsion, and somatic illness. The generalized locus of control index explained more variance than the health-related scale on the obsession-compulsion and somatic complaints measures. Health locus of control was a better predictor of anxiety, and the two scales were equally strong as predictors of depression. The size and density of social support networks were not significant mediators of the relationship between stress and maladjustment. Future research should focus on gender and environmental differences, and the causal relationship between short term stressful life events and coping style. (BL)