The potential for homesickness to also interfere with academics is noteworthy given the important long-term consequences (e.g., employment prospects, graduate admissions). Fewer positive interactions with peers and not fitting in may lead homesick students to seek contact and support from family and friends at home, strengthening these outside relationships but interfering with the development of new relationships ( Tochkov, Levine, & Sanaka, 2010). When examining these potential social effects, it may be important to distinguish between relationships with people at home versus people in the new environment. However, homesickness has typically not been tested as a risk factor for later social problems. Homesickness has been linked to certain social factors, such as social anxiety and social support ( Urani et al., 2003), as well as levels of belonging ( Watt & Badger, 2009). Students that become homesick upon entering college may have difficulty adjusting to the college setting, leading to social and academic difficulties. Past work has documented various psychological and physical health consequences of homesickness ( Stroebe, et al., 2015). Homesickness may negatively affect individuals’ ability to adjust to their new social environment.
Understanding how homesickness changes over time is especially important given its potential impact on adjustment. Overall, homesickness seems to be relatively common, but individuals differ in the intensity and duration of their homesickness ( Stroebe et al., 2015). In addition, in a longitudinal study of children at a two-week overnight summer camp, 95% felt homesick for at least one day of their stay and those who felt intensely homesick at the start of camp were more likely to have increasing levels of homesickness ( Thurber, 1999). For instance, in a sample of college students, Bell and Bromnick (1998) found that homesickness declined from the first week to the sixth week of the semester. Longitudinal approaches can provide a better understanding of how homesickness may change as individuals adapt to their new environment. Nineteen to 70% of university students have been found to experience homesickness, depending on how homesickness is measured and the specific populations of interest (e.g., Brewin, Furnham, & Howes, 1989 Carden & Feicht, 1991 Fisher & Hood, 1987 Fisher, Murray, & Frazer, 1985). In the present study, we take a longitudinal approach to examine weekly levels of homesickness experienced by students across their first term at college, and test the effects of homesickness on various aspects of adjustment.Prevalence of Homesickness and Change Over TimeĬurrent estimates of the prevalence of homesickness vary greatly. Homesickness may place individuals at risk for poor adjustment outcomes, such as emotional and social difficulties (for review, see Stroebe, Schut, & Nauta, 2015).
However, college students may be particularly susceptible to homesickness given that the move to college is often their first extended time away from home. Homesickness-“the distress or impairment caused by an actual or anticipated separation from home” ( Thurber & Walton, 2012, p. Findings suggest that homesickness is a common experience for freshman and, despite its relatively transient nature, homesickness has important implications for college adjustment. Academic outcomes were not adversely impacted by homesickness. Homesickness was associated with poorer social outcomes, but these social difficulties were limited to interactions with others in the college environment. Freshman who reported higher levels of homesickness showed worse overall adjustment to college, even when controlling for negative emotional experience and prior adjustment. Results showed that, on average, homesickness decreased slightly across the first semester of college, but there were individual differences in homesickness trajectories. The present study examines weekly levels of homesickness during the first term of college and tests the associations between homesickness and various aspects of adjustment. There is little work, however, examining individual variation in homesickness over time and how these changes predict different outcomes in college. The millions of students that leave home for college each year may be particularly susceptible to experiencing homesickness. Homesickness can put individuals at risk for a host of adjustment difficulties.
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