Preventing Homesickness in College Freshmen – A Student Affairs Leader Exclusive
March 1, 2007
By Catherine Stover
Every residence advisor knows how to recognize homesickness; most RAs also are familiar with strategies for helping homesick college students. But does anyone know how to prevent homesickness from occurring in the first place?
Dr. Christopher Thurber, who recently published a report in Pediatrics entitled "Preventing and Treating Homesickness" with coauthor Dr. Edward Walton, believes that new thinking is needed in helping college students cope with homesickness. His research indicates that homesickness is a nearly universal, but highly preventable and treatable, phenomenon.
"For over 100 years, schools have patted homesick kids on the back, tried to keep them busy, and hoped the preoccupation with thoughts of home will go away," says Thurber, who is the school psychologist at Phillips Exeter Academy. "But research shows that it’s healthier and more effective to think about prevention."
In fact, his newly-developed homesickness prevention program for campers ages eight through sixteen reduced the intensity of homesickness by 50 percent. While he has not yet tested his prevention approach on college students, and knows of no campus in the country that has a prevention program in place, he believes that such a program could have a dramatic affect on the experience of first-year college students.
"If someone said to you, ‘Do you want to improve the college experience for the 20 percent of freshmen who are experiencing homesickness?’ wouldn’t you say, ‘Yes, of course!’? Then you should look for ways to prevent it."
In a recent interview, Student Affairs Leader asked Dr. Thurber to begin to explore strategies for college campuses to use to prevent homesickness at colleges.
SAL: How prevalent is homesickness on college campuses?
Dr. Thurber: Almost every student misses something about home at least briefly, for at least one day. About 80 percent of students are not bothered by homesickness. However, for about 20 percent of college freshmen, homesickness interferes with their ability to concentrate, make social connections, and achieve what they want to achieve academically, artistically and athletically. The experience of this twenty percent varies along a continuum. Those at the high end are so stressed that they are almost paralyzed and are unable to complete their work. Students who are homesick have a much higher rate of withdrawing and not re-matriculating.
SAL: Can you describe what homesickness is like for a college student?
Dr. Thurber: There are two basic types of homesickness.
Students who experience the first type enjoy their new school, but they miss the people, places and things of home. Students who experience the second type are so overwhelmed by their new environment that they want to go home, even though they don’t necessarily miss the people, places and things at home. These two different types of homesickness both result in the student wanting to leave school and to return home.
We know that the two emotions that underlie homesickness are depression and anxiety. The hallmark symptom of homesickness is preoccupation with thoughts of home. Homesick college students can’t concentrate as well, or make friends, or participate in things on campus as well as they could if they weren’t homesick. They may have trouble eating and sleeping.
Homesickness affects adults as well as children. There are historical accounts from Civil War generals who wrote about solders who were so homesick that they committed suicide. It is an ancient phenomenon, mentioned in both the Old Testament book of Exodus and Homer’s Odyssey.
We know that if left untreated, severe homesickness tends to get worse and worse over time. The good news is that we can identify ahead of time what the risk factors are.
SAL: What are the risk factors?
Dr. Thurber: The risk factors for homesickness fall into four categories:
- Experience factors: Students who have never spent time away from home before are at a greater risk of experiencing homesickness, as are students who have had negative experiences when staying away from home.
- Attitude factors: The belief that homesickness will be strong, coupled with negative first impressions and low expectations for the new environment, are a powerful predictors of homesickness. In a study of college freshmen, a perceived absence of social support was also a strong predictor of homesickness.
- Personality factors: Adolescents with an "anxious-ambivalent" attachment style are likely to experience significant distress upon separation from home. These students are unsure about how reliably or positively the people at home will respond to their displays of distress. They may also have mixed feelings about how worthy they are of other people’s love and attention. Secure attachment, on the other hand, is associated with independence, a proclivity to explore, and solid social skills.
Two other personality factors that increase the risk of homesickness are the student’s low level of perceived control (over life in general or over the separation itself) and anxious or depressed feelings in the months before a separation. - Family factors: The family factor most predictive of homesickness is low "decision control." In other words, when parents force a student to go to college, that student feels little decision control. Other family factors that are weaker predictors of homesickness include caregivers who express anxiety or ambivalence about the separation ("Have a great time at school. I don’t know what I’ll do without you"), or the presence of an unresolved negative life event, such as the possibility that parents might decide to divorce while the student is away. The possibility of a divorce or other negative event is more likely to have an affect on the student than an event that actually did happen before the student left home.
SAL: If a student affairs office decided to create a "prevention program," what would it include?
Dr. Thurber: Prevention programs for homesickness should involve a combination of psycho-education, parental support, explicit coping instruction, resident advisor education and training, and practice time away from home before the student leaves for college.
For example, student affairs offices could consider including self-assessment tools in the packets that students receive before the term begins. One such tool which should be customized for the campus could look something like this:
While mental health professionals know that homesickness is prevalent and that it can have a significantly negative impact on a student’s experience at college, there is no research that I know of that has studied homesickness-prevention methods on college campuses. I am interested in developing prevention materials – perhaps like the DVD-CD set that I developed for new campers – and I am looking for an organization that is willing to sponsor the developmental costs of such an initiative.
SAL: We will do our best to help spread the word. We’d like to hear back from you again after you’ve developed a full program.
Homesickness Myths | |
|---|---|
| Myth: Homesickness is just for kids. | Truth: It is normal for all people to experience some degree of distress when they are away from home. |
| Myth: Severe homesickness vanishes by itself. | Truth: Severe homesickness gets better with positive coping efforts. Resident advisors are trained in offering support. |
| Myth: Talking about homesickness causes homesickness. | Truth: Talking about homesickness provides a way to educate and encourage a homesick person. |
| Myth: Students get homesick only for their parents. | Truth: Some students miss home cooking, the family pet, friends, or their previous lifestyle. |
| Myth: Homesickness always feels like sadness. | Truth: Homesickness may feel like sadness. Or it may feel like nervousness, anger, irritability, or disorientation. It also may be a contributing factor in a complex condition. |
| The Seven Red Flags of Homesickness |
|---|
| These are the red flags that indicate that a student is at risk for homesickness: |
| The student has never slept away from home before. |
| The student has dreaded going off to college. |
| The student does not like to try new things, especially with new people. |
| The student had a bad experience away from home before and had to bail out. |
| The student believes he or she can’t count on family members to help out. |
| The student believes that the family situation is going to change for the worse while he or she is at school. |
| The student feels forced to go to this college at this time. |
The following list includes the type of information that you may wish to include in your packets for parents:
Homesickness-Prevention Strategies for Parents of College Students
- If your student has not stayed away from home before, encourage him or her to spend some practice time away before leaving for college. This is one of the best ways a student can prepare for moving to college.
- Encourage your student to get the information he or she needs to form a positive attitude about going to college. A positive attitude will be very beneficial!
- Assure your student that you are willing to offer your support. Even though you may assume that your student already knows this, it’s important for him or her to hear you say it.
- Don’t send mixed messages such as "Have a great time. I don’t know what I’ll do while you’re gone," or "I hope you’ll be okay." Instead, express enthusiasm and optimism about the separation. If you, the parent, are feeling separation anxiety, share it with other parents, not with your student.
- Make sure that your student knows about the college’s support system and the role of the residence life staff.
- Discuss coping strategies with your student. Talk about how nearly everyone feels some homesickness at some point, and that there are good ways to cope with those normal feelings. Identify in advance a few things your student can do, such as talking with a residence life staffer, joining a recreation team, or getting involved with group activities in the dorm.
- E-mail! This is a good way to stay in touch and offer your encouragement and support.
Dr. Christopher Thurber’s Web site is www.campspirit.com. His email address is cthurber@exeter.edu.
Catherine Stover is the editor of Student Affairs Leaders. Her email address is Catherine.stover@magnapubs.com.
This article was reproduced from Magna Publications with permission.