Homesickness among American and Turkish College Students

This study explored the following questions: (a) Are there cultural differences in the degree of reported homesickness? (b) What variables differentiate the homesick from the nonhomesick? (c) Do these differentiating dimensions vary across cultures? The participants were 75 American and 69 Turkish 1st-year female college students. They completed two personality inventories and a 60-item Homesickness Questionnaire. There was a significant difference in the number of homesick students in the two culture groups. Further, the mean homesickness rating of the American sample was significantly less than the mean homesickness rating of the Turkish participants. Some aspects of the experience of homesickness transcended cultural boundaries (e.g., lower social presence, greater dependence on parental guidance, problems with personal well-being) and others were found to be culture specific (e.g., higher socialization and lower flexibility scores for the Turkish homesick group).