MIssing home: Sociotropy and autonomy and their relationship to psychological distress and homesickness in college freshmen

Abstract

The study was an attempt to extend Aaron Beck's formulation of the sociotropic and autonomous vulnerabilities involved in depressogenesis to a population experiencing depressive symptoms due to adjustment related difficulties, namely freshman college students beginning their first semester. The results obtained from 167 college freshmen, assessed 6–7 weeks after beginning their first semester at college, were generally consistent with the research predictions. Specifically, sociotropic persons displayed the classic symptoms of “homesickness” in that they were more likely to be preoccupied about home and display depressive symptoms after the transition to college. Attachment to home scores also mediated effects of sociotropy on depression. By contrast, autonomous persons were less attached to home, although they did report depressive symptoms as a result of the transition. Exploring this trend, it was observed that autonomy was related to disliking the university scores which did meditate indirect effects of autonomy on depression.

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