psychology paper for Kesha grey

Ali Almarzooqi

Marymount University

Running Head: Homesickness and College Performance

1

Homesickness and College Performance

Introduction

Experiencing homesickness in college is natural for the students and this problem is common in the starting years of the study. Most of the students learn how to overcome this issue and if not, this can lead to multiple other concerns about health problems and academic performance. Students put in a lot of hard work for securing admission in the college and this is the place where their expectations and dreams can be fulfilled. The reason for the development of homesickness in such situation is mainly because of the change that comes as part of college life. Students get to experience independence for the first time and they have to deal with maturity and growth on their own. However, there are two basic factors of homesickness including distress and separation.

The effect of distress and separation experienced by the homesick students is on the experience of first year college students who need to develop commitment, social integration, satisfaction, and peer connections (Krumrei – Mancuso et al., 2013). In particular, homesickness is said to be the distress level that is a key outcome of being away from home for the first time. This distress can also be because of the academic retention and performance where the student wants to perform his best in the new environment. When the students are away from their home, they experience different culture and locations. Especially for the international students, the language, traditions, and food are also different which makes them do a lot of adjustments to the new environment (Harrison & Brower, 2011). However, if the distress is not a result of being separated from home, this cannot be called as homesickness.

The experience of first year college students contains separation homesickness as a significant component of their experience. The research shows that there are about 30% of the students in the first year who report homesickness because of separation (Stroebe et al., 2015). However, distress is not a common problem for homesickness. Other than homesickness, it is also important to do research about the institutional commitment to getting the right type of statistics. These factors do not adversely affect one another as there are 77% of the students suffering from separation homesickness and also having high institutional commitment (Sun, 2016). Peer connections is another factor that influences the level of homesickness. If the peer connections are strong, the level of distress homesickness decreases. The social activities that take place on the campus can also mitigate the effect of homesickness on the college students.

It is really important to overcome this problem in the college students so that they can show a high level of performance in academic terms. By increasing the social integration, this issue can be solved. With the decrease in the level of homesickness, it becomes easy to improve the academic performance that might have decreased due to experiencing distress and separation homesickness. There are different theoretical perspectives that can be taken as the psychological grounds for the process of homesickness. The very first perspective is the composite model of homesickness presented by Fisher’s. this mechanism defines the dual process that helps in coping with the sadness. The second perspective is of the psychological development of the student and which the theory of student departure can be applied. This is the general model in which the change is assessed. The third psychological discipline is the social cognitive perspective which offers a predictive prototypical for homesickness by elaborating on the development of student and incorporating other factors from the social and psychological perspective (Melzer & Grant, 2016). These are the basic disciplines of psychology that can provide help in understanding the reasons behind homesickness.

In the previous literature, homesickness is termed as the adjustment disorder by the American Psychiatric Association. This type of distress is common because of the occupational functioning and social impairment. It is a common phenomenon if the symptoms do not persist for more than the time period of six months (Melzer & Grant, 2016). This is a milestone that takes place on a universal level in the process of development. It is proved that almost all types of people are homesick at any certain stage of their life and this is not necessarily associated with the college students. So, homesickness is a widespread mechanism that has an effect on people from all age groups and cultures. This is observed mostly in the students living in boarding, college students and immigrants who live away from their home due to any specific reason.

The routine psychological functioning and physical activities of such people are affected when they are distressed because of being away from the home. This thing leads to the conclusion that educational performance in college is affected by the students who are psychologically distressed (Stroebe et al., 2015) So, this paper will mainly focus on the evidence-based research mechanism. The goal here is to use evidence-based research for finding valuable facts that can help in drawing conclusions about the relationship between the homesickness and performance of students in college (LoBiondo – Wood et al., 2013).

References

Krumrei-Mancuso, E. J., Newton, F. B., Kim, E., & Wilcox, D. (2013). Psychosocial factors predicting first-year college student success. Journal of College Student Development, 54(3), 247-266.

LoBiondo-Wood, G., Haber, J., Berry, C., & Yost, J. (2013). Study Guide for Nursing Research-E-Book: Methods and Critical Appraisal for Evidence-Based Practice. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Longo, G. S., & Kim-Spoon, J. (2013). Homesickness in college students: The role of religion in combating depression. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 16(5), 489-500.

Melzer, D. K., & Grant, R. M. (2016). Investigating differences in personality traits and academic needs among prepared and underprepared first-year college students. Journal of College Student Development, 57(1), 99-103.

Stroebe, M., Schut, H., & Nauta, M. (2015). Homesickness: A systematic review of the scientific literature. Review of general psychology, 19(2), 157.

Sun, J., & Hagedorn, L. S. (2016). Homesickness at college: Its impact on academic performance and retention. Journal of College Student Development, 57(8), 943-957.

Terry, M. L., Leary, M. R., & Mehta, S. (2013). Self-compassion as a buffer against homesickness, depression, and dissatisfaction in the transition to college. Self and Identity, 12(3), 278-290.