"What specific communication skills can parents work on to address the challenge of young adults being homesick?"
Transitioning into adulthood often for many entails going away to college. While the fun and nostalgia of going away and being on your own can be exciting for a while realities set in and many young adults become homesick. It is a challenge college students have faced for years and it has taken a toll on them academically and personally.
Students who take advantage of college programs and receive support from home should be able to overcome homesickness. There are programs at many colleges to help incoming freshman adjust and gain independence and freedom from their homesickness. It has been found that students that are severely homesick often display some of the same behaviors including poor decision making and study skills, constantly maintaining contact with home and family, display anxiety in social situations, and withdrawing from normally enjoyable activities. Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania takes a few actions to try and help these homesick students at their school. One idea I really liked that made getting acclimated to school was assigning each new student a peer mentor who is an upperclassman student to help with the academic, emotional and social transition. Hope College in Michigan is another college keen to the idea of helping homesick first year students. They create an orientation group on the first day for all freshman to break the ice and give them some options to create a network of friends within the community. Susquehanna University has my favorite program or idea on how to get homesick students involved call "Dog Days." It is a nationally recognized program where each year around 30 faculty and staff bring their dogs on campus and use them as an icebreaker for the students. The students interact with the dogs which in turn helps them to interact with faculty and staff members so they can offer their assistance. The dogs create an easier environment for students to communicate. After doing some research I found that most colleges and universities across the country offer at least something to help students get acclimated and comfortable away from home. This is something to keep in mind when looking for a school.
Students also need support of their parents during such a transition. Students who had difficulty separating from home as children will have difficulty as they enter college. It's important that students create a balance of getting support from home but also creating independence within themselves early in life. A recommendation for parents to help their children is to encourage short positive experiences being away from home and parents. They should also be vocal about what a good and positive experience college is and that they can and will succeed. Communication should be consistent but not over the top. While there are plenty of things we can do to help with homesickness in college each student will acclimate in his or her own time.
Chase
University Business; Nov2007, Vol. 10 Issue 11, p80-80, 1p, 1 Illustration
Chase, I agree with your comments and students need to get involved in all that college groups and service organizations have to offer.
ReplyDeleteCheryl
I really enjoyed reading this post, this is something that I can really relate to, my first year of college I went to the University of Oregon and I experienced extreme homesickness, especially because there was no sunshine up there majority of the year. I wish that I would have been more involved so that I would have lessened my homesickness, great advice though, thank you.
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