How Family Cohesion Impacts the College Transition

In recent years, parents and family members have been increasingly more involved in decisions related to the college experience. In many families, involvement has become an expectation, as parents are often more involved in their children’s lives in general.  While professionals in academia have mixed feelings on the effectiveness and necessity of parental involvement, colleges and universities have begun advertising to both potential students and their families. It has become more common today for a parent to want to sit in on an advising appointment with their child at college than even a few years ago.

So when it comes to how cohesive and connected a family is, it’s not too surprising that it actually impacts the college admissions process.

Consistently, research shows that cohesion and connection within the family prior to and during adolescence play a major role in how the student transitions to college and their quality of well-being and how the parent-child relationship progresses.  The changes in adolescents experienced when navigating the transition from high school to college have proven to have physiological effects and occurs simultaneously with the considerable surges in depression seen around age 18.

In 2015, researchers conducted a study to determine if the changing nature of the parent-child relationship is linked to the overall decline in well-being in college freshmen during the transition to college.  The study mainly refers to the teen’s perception of their own family’s cohesion, by measuring self-reported family cohesion. Results found self-reported depression levels grew over and above clinical levels within two months of transitioning to college and that family cohesion increased throughout the college transition. For those students who detailed improved family cohesion, they also presented a decline in depressive symptoms over a period of time.

Basically, the majority of college-bound students see an increase in depressive symptoms during their transition to college, but if they have strong family bonds, those symptoms are likely to fall and the family bond will continue to grow!

The results from this study continue to support the existing research that the parent-child relationship remains a significant factor in the lives of children and provides meaningful emotional support far and beyond childhood.  The findings confirm that parent-child relationships often continue to progress throughout the college transition, and that these improvements greatly benefit the child’s mental health during transitional and developmental stages.

Regardless of what this research reveals, it is critical to understand that not all adolescents who transition to college will have increased levels of depression and loneliness and issues with adjustment.  There are many students who report better adjustment once they go to college.

To back all of these findings up, there’s also a theory that presents how family background is a significant predictor of early assimilation into college.  Students who attend college in another town or city often feel higher levels of social anxiety, depression, homesickness, and loneliness during the transition to college with perceived lower levels of social support.  However, students with a higher quality of parental support and healthier attachment may experience a more positive transition. The research is pretty consistent!

The research and literature consistently demonstrate that levels of family cohesion may decrease depressive symptoms in new college students and increase overall levels in well-being, and that a healthy parent-child relationship may serve as a buffer to the adverse outcomes of great developmental changes such as the college transition.  The results reinforce the concept that parent and familial relationships remain imperative through adolescence and beyond!