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WEDNESDAY, Aug. 27, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- First-year female college students may suffer "friendsickness," which can be a major source of stress for them during their freshman year, says a Penn State study.
But understanding that they can maintain their pre-college friendships and still make new friends at college can help them overcome the problem, researchers say.
The study included 91 full-time freshman at a large research university with an undergraduate enrollment of 34,000 students and an average freshman class of 6,000 students.
The 91 students in the study were told to make journal entries chronicling their efforts during the first semester to maintain ties with childhood and high school friends while cultivating new friends on campus.
"Female first-year students have a difficult time letting go of their pre-college friendships, a source of comfort and stability, as well as a link to the past," researcher Dr. Jennifer Crissman Ishler, an assistant professor of counselor education, says in a news release.
"Many of the students appeared to grieve the loss of having friends who intimately knew and understood them. They spent much time and energy trying to maintain their pre-college friendships through e-mail, America Online's Instant Messenger, phone calls, visits to each other's campuses and visits home," Crissman Ishler says.
She determined this preoccupation with holding on to pre-college friendships often interfered with the process of forming new relationships at college. The female students seemed to fear that new relationships they made at college would lack the depth and intimacy of old friendships.
"After a month or two of college, first-year female students started to understand the need for making new friends at college. They remained loyal to their pre-college friends, but recognized that it was alright and indeed necessary to have friends at college," Crissman Ishler says.
She presented the study at the recent annual meeting of the American College Personnel Association.
More information
Here's where to learn more about some common problems encountered by college students.
