Homesick Freshmen

[DWAlphaGam]

http://www.reuters.com/news_article....toryID=1367071

Simple Steps May Help Homesick College Freshmen

August 23, 2002 05:37 PM ET

By E. J. Mundell

CHICAGO (Reuters Health) - Over the next couple of weeks, millions of college freshmen will leave home for the first time, making their way in an unfamiliar new world. Most will experience some form of homesickness, experts say, but there are ways for even the shyest students to make this transition relatively stress-free.

"Everyone gets some degree of social anxiety when they get to college--they're meeting new people for the first time, they want to make a good impression and form some good networks," said researcher Steven Miller, of Loyola University, Chicago. "Its normal to feel anxious right away. But when that anxiety persists in people, that's when it gets to be a problem."

In fact, every year, a percentage of freshmen at colleges everywhere will drop out due to overwhelming feelings of homesickness, coupled with an inability to make solid new friendships.

In their study, Miller, along with co-researchers Maria Urani and Dr. James Johnson, tried to determine just who might be at highest risk for long-term homesickness upon entering college. They had 105 freshmen fill out questionnaires during the first two weeks of the fall term, and then again at weeks five through seven. Aside from assessing changes in each student's emotional state, the questionnaires also focused on personality traits, such as feelings of anxiety or shyness around others, and their ability to make new friendships.

"Basically what we found was that students who were experiencing these high levels of social anxiety found it difficult to establish new networks in their environment--they weren't able to make the transition so easily," co-researcher Urani told Reuters Health. This led to fewer new friendships, and so these students "tended to feel more homesick" than their peers, even 7 weeks into the term.

The findings were presented here Friday at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.

The Chicago team said many factors can render a freshman especially shy, sensitive and anxious when making this important life-transition. "Some social anxiety is related to really overprotective parenting styles," Johnson said. "The kids are so protected and so sheltered, and the parents are so ready to intervene from day 1, that the kids don't really get the opportunity to get out and test themselves and develop their social muscles."

Lack of self-esteem might contribute to the problem as well, he said. "If the kids don't feel positive about themselves they are not going to feel positive in these new relationships."

But homesickness, and the insecurities that feed it, can be overcome. According to the researchers, getting involved in on-campus activities is key. "Look at what you're interested in and get involved in organizations," Miller urged. "If you're a computer guy get involved in a computer club or whatever and try and do that. By doing the things you feel competent at, you can form those good relationships even though you are feeling a little bit anxious."

The structured nature of clubs or other groups means shy students are also taking fewer risks. "They set paths for you, they tell you what to do, so you're not feeling anxious like you have to speak up in front of a crowd," Urani said.

And while it should never be a sole reason in picking a school, it doesn't hurt if you already know someone at your college before you arrive. According to Johnson--a former Freshman Dean--"we did see that kids who were socially anxious would sometimes adopt as their friendship group their friend's friendship group. So if they've got a friend from the same high school, that person is going out and making friends, and by kind of tagging along eventually they, too, become part of that group."



***Yet another reason to go greek! Does anyone know the percentage of greeks that transfer or drop out of school? Because if you're following this theory, I would guess that that percentage is lower.