Mood regulation and relationship quality predict change in homesickness during college.

Abstract

Recent theorizing has implicated affect regulation as central to the experience of homesickness. Conceptualized as grief due to losing social connections with close others when relocating, homesickness is associated with poor emotional and social adjustment. The present study examined how mood regulation and relationship quality - at home and in college - predict homesickness and negative affect among college students (N=168). We assessed 16 mood regulation strategies as well as relationship quality each week over the first college term. As predicted, time-lagged multilevel analyses demonstrate that avoidance-oriented strategies were helpful in the short term (the following week), but chronic avoidance (across the college term) predicted higher levels of homesickness. Approach-oriented regulatory strategies did not predict homesickness, however. Relationship quality demonstrated differential main effects at the between-person level but did not predict fluctuations in homesickness from week to week. Across the college term, closer ties at home predicted greater homesickness, whereas closer ties in college predicted lower homesickness. Notably, there were distinct effects of mood regulation for homesickness compared to negative affect. The present study is among the first to examine effects of mood regulation on homesickness longitudinally, suggesting it is important to consider the type of regulation strategies being used as well as the time scale.