In this experiment, researchers distributed questionnaires to one hundred first-year student attending Massey University. Ranging from ages 18 to 33, the participants all had left home and were permanently residing on campus. These students answered questions used from the Dundee Relocation Inventory, which measured homesickness, previous mobility and family functioning among various demographics. In the first section, questions were designed to assess the feelings students held towards their home, security, family and general satisfaction, In the second section, the students answered questions about the functionality of their family. In the final section, the students were asked about the amount of times they had moved prior to attending college.
Through the experiment, the researchers collected the questionnaires and determined that there was a high level of family cohesion reported by the students as well as a high level of homesickness. Around 31% of participants had experienced homesickness, with 11% reporting familial functionality. In addition, it was concluded that previous mobility had no effect on disclosed mobility. In comparing the levels of homesickness, it was also found that there was no significant difference between genders and races, with age being the only demographic variable that had an effect on homesickness – 32.4% of participants under 19 and 27.8 % of students over the age of 19. This data thus suggests that familial cohesion as well as age were the most reliable indicators for homesickness.
In analyzing the acquired data, it was deduced that family cohesion accounted for 18% of the levels of homesickness in college students. As expected, there was a significant relationship between the levels of homesickness in students and their reported familial cohesion and age.
Flett, Ross. “FAMILY COHESION AND AGE AS DETERMINANTS OF HOMESICKNESS IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS.” Social Behavior and Personality: an International Journal, vol. 26, no. 2, 1998, pp. 195–202.
