The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 42, No. 2 - 48

William R. Henninger IV * Anastasia Osbeck * Elaine M. Eshbaugh * Christopher Madigan

LONELINESS AMONG COLLEGE
AND UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
The loneliness accompanying the transition
to college has been noted as a painful experience for young people, in part because they
have left behind the social support that was
prevalent in their relationships with friends
and family (Marshall, Liu, Wu, Berzonsky,
& Adams, 2010). This transition is also important because loneliness appears to be an
interaction of both personality traits and environmental effects (Hawkely & Cacioppo,
2010; Larose, Guay, & Boivin, 2002). Certain
personality traits-such as expectations for
poor social interactions and bias towards remembering poor social interactions-predict
less than satisfactory interactions, and certain
environments (unfamiliar settings, settings
with unfamiliar people) make the potential
for desired social connection overwhelming.
Though personality traits and environmental effects appear to be important predictors
of loneliness, previous research on loneliness among college and university students
has focused on the organizational climate
of university life, but not on speciﬁc students' reports of relationships and loneliness
(Wiseman, Mayseless, & Sharabany, 2006).
Loneliness is one of the most prominent
concerns reported by college students and is
one of the most common reasons for seeking
help at campus counseling centers (Nicpon et
al., 2006). At an institutional level, loneliness
combined with additional student issues such
as depression or stress over academics has
been associated with increased dropout rates,
which may lead to loss of enrollment and a
lack of overall morale within residence halls
and on campus (Daugherty & Lane, 1999; Za48

wadzki, Graham, & Gerin, 2013). However, if
research can identify early predictors of loneliness in college students, programs can be
created to address and mitigate them and may
limit many of the negative academic and social
effects of loneliness.

Students with more support
from friends and signiﬁcant
others were less lonely.
Interestingly, more support
from family was signiﬁcantly
related to more loneliness.

A majority of college students opt to, or
are required to, live in student housing their
ﬁrst year of college (Stern, Powers, Dhaene,
Dix, & Shegog, 2007). Often ﬁrst-year student
housing involves sharing a room with another
college student, and these ﬁrst experiences
with sharing close quarters typically involve
close contact and attachment (Sandford &
Rowatt, 2004). Differences in desire for togetherness between roommates may develop,
where one roommate may desire more physical and emotional closeness than the other
(Erlandson, 2009). Research suggests that
similarities in communication strategies and
some personality traits, such as the ability to
cooperate and communicate, predict greater
roommate satisfaction (Erlandson, 2009). Attempts to match roommates based on similarities are often made by colleges and universities

THE JOURNAL OF COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY STUDENT HOUSING
The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 42, No. 2

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