STUDENT WELLNESS
Homesickness

Parents need to be aware that all students are susceptible to homesickness. Home is a place where one feels accepted and secure. Support from parents, family and friends, familiarity with one's surroundings, and confidence in one's ability to be successful and meet challenges all contribute to a sense of self assurance and security. However, when one leaves this supportive environment for one with few close personal relationships, new and unfamiliar surroundings, and challenges that may tax one's abilities, confidence and self assurance tend to erode, feelings of insecurity evolve, and close relationships with family and friends become more important. These responses are made even more intense when coupled with the fear of failure-something many students experience when faced with the rigors of college coursework.

If you notice that your student is experiencing signs of homesickness: calling home often, crying during phone calls and stating that he/she wants to return home, expressing concern over the lack of new relationships - here are some tips to help you respond to your student as he/she goes through this adjustment period:

1. Talk with your student about what it is like to go away from home. It takes strength to accept the fact that something is bothering you and to confront it.
2. Send your student familiar items from home to include in his or her new living space at school. Photos, plants, even stuffed animals help to give one a sense of continuity and ease the shock of a new environment.
3. When you bring your student to campus, help him/her to become familiar with the new surroundings. Walk around with him/her. This will make your student feel more in control if he/she knows where buildings, classes, and services are.
4. Invite people along (i.e., neighbors, other students who reside on your student's floor) to explore with you. Making friends is a big step to alleviating homesickness.
5. Plan a date for a visit home with your student. This will help curtail any impulsive returns home. Discourage your student from trying to visit home every weekend. This is especially important during the beginning of the school year when social groups are forming and on-campus relationships are developing.

University Residences recommends a book for "first time parents" of college students: Letting Go: A Parents' Guide to Today's College Experience , by Karen Levin Coburn and Madge Lawrence Treeger, published by Adler and Adler Publishers, Inc. Check it out if you are interested in reading more about parenting college students. Sources:

www.uwec.edu/counsel/pubs/homesick.htm
www.brockport.edu/cc/homesickness.html