Transition From Home to College Dormitory: The Role of Preestablished Affective Relationships in Adjustment to a New Life

Using 26-week longitudinal data on 61 female first-year college students, this study examined how the preestablished framework of social relationships of an individual student affect adjustment to the transition from home to the college campus dormitory. Based on an initial measurement, 23 agemate-dominant students and 14 family-dominant students were selected and compared in terms of how their new social relationships were formed and how their adjustment was supported by preestablished and/or new relationships. As predicted, the agemate-dominant-type students more easily developed relationships with new agemates and reported fewer difficulties in making the transition than their family-dominant-type counterparts. How the preestablished framework of social relationships moderated the present social interactions is discussed.