Homesickness Amongst International Students: A Literature Review

Literature Review

The purpose of this report is to investigate homesickness amongst international students. The number of students that choose to study abroad is growing at a greater rate every day. One of the major reasons is that they want diversity. Students want to experience a different culture, structure and even environment of study apart from the one they grew up in. A psychological distress builds in when they miss their friends and family and generally the environment they were used to.  When they are exposed to a new environment, they are supposed to start building up new social networks, forming new friends and adapting to the new culture and environment. From a research, an approximate 30% of international students have reported being homesick (1).  

At USC, many students have reported cases of homesickness. Most of the students have travelled from other countries including China, France, Britain, Kenya and America among others. Recent studies show that students with homesickness tend to perform much poor than other students. The poor performance is brought about by the acculturative stressors that impact students who have to adjust n a new culture. Mostly homesickness affects first years. This is because this could be the first time they are in a new environment. Lack of emotional, social and physical support contributes to the stress and hence homesickness (11).

The author defines homesickness as the emotional distress that is caused as a result of separation from home. It is usually a thought that attaches a person to things at home that they do not have any more or people they are not around anymore. The feeling makes one anxious and depressed with a drawn behaviour. The state prompts the victim to have healthy attachment behaviours such as calling at home severally (3). In most cases, the period is short-lived and only happens when a person is new to a different environment. After sometimes they will get used to it and the feeling of homesickness will disappear.

Every country has a different culture. When one travels from America to Australia for studies, they have to adjust to the new culture. This causes emotional stress, especially on the very first days. Studies suggest that the more difference there is in culture for an international student, the more homesick the student will be. This happens more at USC because Australia is a whole different continent on its own, most of the international students have never been to the country before. The adjustment to the new culture causes there to be a widespread homesickness (5). One of the most researched cultures is the Chinese culture. Their culture tends to be far much different than the Australian cultures. They have stronger family connections and tighter relationships. Breaking this bond makes them homesick.

Homesickness and adjustment

The age and gender is a great contributor to the level of homesickness for international students. Students at a young age tend to have formed lesser relationships in their lives and not have moved as much, therefore, they could be more affected by the distance. Females also tend to be more affected than the male (6). This is because a female is more emotional and are easily stressed. Although other factors such as the level of openness, neuroticism and experience tend to contribute when it comes to homesickness, age and gender still play a huge part.

At USC, the commonly used language is English. All students are encouraged to study in English whereas some of them are poor at it. The fact that they are not fluent in English could be a huge contributor to homesickness. In a country like Chinese, most of the studies are done in Chinese. When a study that is only used to Chinese joins USC, it becomes hard for him/her to adapt. This may cause emotional distress and thereby result in homesickness. When a student s not very fluent in the language used in the country, he/she gets lonely since it’s harder to interact with other people. It is even much harder to learn their language especially if you are not an open-minded student (8). This factor has been identified to be an issue amongst Turkish students at USC, Chinese, French and German students among others.

The result of homesickness is most of the time a change in culture and environment. When a person gets to an environment where the food is not the same, the humour is different, the religion is not quite the same, the language nor the customs, and they are bound to be stressed. The change in the environment is a contributing factor (7). This could be just the change in climate or the urban vs rural setting change or vice versa. To resolve the homesickness among students, the following risk and protective factors are suggested to be helpful:

Provision of a good orientation for incoming international students. The students need a clear understanding of the school customs, culture and environment. International students need to be aware of the kind of culture they will be learning in so that they can easily cope unlike when they are just left to discover the new culture on themselves (2).

Students should plan on how they could maintain connections at home to avoid them being homesick. This could be through in-person visits, letters, video chats, phone calls and e-mail. The healthy connections with friends and family would reduce the rate of homesickness and they will be able to cope in the new environment with less stress.

Cultural differences

Students could also initiate contact before the reporting date of school. Social connections play a great role for incoming international students since they already feel like they know someone. Students will tend to miss home but with at least some social connection at school, they will be less homesick.

Another very important protective factor is discouraging the parents from making framing matriculation. Whenever their child misses’ home they promise them of a pick-up deal. This kind of behaviour will not work when it comes to prevention of homesick. Students will always want to go home whenever they miss home which will not work when they are studying very far away from home.

The school could also play a part and encourage participation in various school aspects. This will reduce student’s free time and they will not have much time to think about their home, friends and family. The more the students are involved in the school activities, the more they will gain a sense of agency hence preventing and reducing homesickness.

It happens that some of the protective measures do not work and the students get homesick anyway. Some of the ways to treat homesickness includes:

Providing a very warm and fun orientation. Students will have a chance to familiarize and mingle with each other therefore they can form a new social network easily. The second treatment is making the feeling of missing home a normal thing could also help treat homesickness. Students should be assured that it is normal to miss home and everyone does it (9). This will reduce the intensity and it could be easier to recover.

Fisher drew in models that were related to homesickness, the first model is loss and attachment. The model assumes that when an individual relocated, it is like they have lost someone who was dear to them which results to grief and anger. This feeling develops on to becoming apathy and makes a person feel helpless, the end result is homesickness (4).

Interruption and discontinuity model is the second model. It is developed on the basis that how people used to do things and fulfil their daily routines has been interrupted. When a student moves to a new environment, he/she has to cope with the new life therefore the old life is interrupted. In order for the student to cope he needs to adjust to the new environment.

The third model is, reduced personal control. After relocation, an individual s in less or no control of what is happening there. In most cases, such people lack the ability to cope to the new culture society and technology. Burt (6), argued that homesickness is majorly developed by the fact that when a student moves, he/she doesn’t have any control on the environment.

Age and gender

The fourth fisher’s model is the change and transition model. It depicts students as being obliged to adapt to the new roles in order to live peacefully in the new environment. The transition symbolises giving up the old ways and taking up new ones. This could be stressful to many people hence they tend to become homesick.

Finally, the conflict model- It symbolises the inner self conflict to want to learn the new culture and on the other hand they want to resist. This kind of conflict creates a feeling of wanting to return back home hence causing homesickness.

Critically analysing all of fisher’s models, they are right and all show how homesickness is developed. Different individuals tend to face different models in real life after relocating. After relocation an individual would feel a loss, feel attached to the new ways, have reduced control on the environment, resist change and transition or have an inner conflict of the will to sta. fisher identifies all of these factors as contributory factors to homesickness which have been proven to be true.

Appraisal of Quantitative Article

Homesick at college

Below are a number of qualitative and quantitative models (mixed) that expound more on the topic of homesickness.

The model helps understand better on the topic of homesickness using two dimensions which are, attachment and stress. We can compare homesickness to grief when an individual loss someone through death. The model concluded that there are two stressors that predict the level of homesickness, that is; restoration-oriented stressors, such as difficulties in adjustments and loss-oriented stressors such as missing loved ones. DPM suggest that in order for an individual to cope with homesickness, they need to adjust and come to the loss (12). The model also concludes that individuals moving to a far place and lack enough social support end up becoming victims of homesickness.

A scholar argues that homesickness is as a result of wanting to belong. The research also argues that homesickness can be as a result of former social bonds being broken. After moving, many people tend to want to maintain their old bonds because they still need to belong there. Distress and homesickness kick in after relocation and they realize that the former bonds are not as strong. The model insists that once an individual form a new bond, the need to belong is fulfilled. Distress comes in when these new bonds are not formed as fast. Individuals will surrender to the feeling of loneliness and hence they become homesick. People who are open and feel accepted fast are less likely to feel homesick (10). This theory suggests that acceptance depends on both leaving the old and adjusting to the new.

I totally agree with all the two theories. The theories argue that homesickness is all based on how an individual reacts to the new environment. When they easily adjust and accept, it is unlikely for them to become homesick.

The same article reviews a quantitative survey on the level of homesickness based on factors such as age, race and gender. The table represents the results of a survey conducted on first year students at a university.

The results were further statistically analysed to come up with a conclusive finding on age, gender and race. Using this variable one can conclude that age, gender and race does affect the level of homesickness.

Conclusion

Research question 1; what is the difference in the level of homesickness based on factors such as age, gender and race? After using the ANOVA test to interpret the results, the study shows that females experience a higher level of separation than males. Statistically, international students tend to have the highest scores whereas age does give a significant difference.

Research question 2; what causes homesickness amongst college and university students? The two most common factors are distress and separation. A research study indicates that separation is the major cause of homesickness. After separation distress kicks in and thereafter homesickness.

In conclusion, homesickness is resulted by several factors including distress, separation, conflict, resistance to change, cultural differences, environmental changes, language barriers, reduced personal control and interruption of lifestyle among others. All these factors make students studying abroad want to return back home. However, research also shows that the level of homesickness reduced as time passes. There are several means that could be protective against homesickness. Most of the methods are proved to work. They include; Initiating contact before the reporting date, a good orientation upon reporting, encouraging students to participate in various school aspects, students should also maintain contact with friends and family and parents should discourage the pick-up deals. These measures could help in the protection of homesickness among university students.

References

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11. Pearce KL. Building a sense of belonging and connectedness: what extra-curricular activities do international students really want?. Journal of the Australian & New Zealand Student Services Association. 2015 Apr 1(45).

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