Social interaction phenomena in the first-year college experience.

Abstract

The transition from high school to college is not an easy process. New freedoms and new independence provide for an exciting first year. There is little debate as to the importance of starting college off well. However, juggling these new freedoms with increased academic rigor is a very difficult task. Several authors have described the importance of peer relationships and participation in social networks as key to reducing some of the stress involved in the transition process, but discussions of social networks compositions were rare.

Recommendations for successful utilization of this study's results are also provided.

Employing a phenomenological method of analysis, this study investigated the composition of first-year student social networks. Having an increased understanding of who comprises these groups provides higher education administrators with greater opportunities to alleviate transition difficulties.

This study combined interviews and observations, conducted in various campus locations, to identify potential phenomena within these student relationships. Two noteworthy phenomena appeared in the data collection process. First, at University A, social network compositions could be depicted graphically by a set of concentric circles which represented the most common friendship groupings in the center circle out to the least common groupings in the outer circle. Last, the study illustrated Tinto's (1987) separation stage for first-year students may not be occurring as rapidly as was previously assumed.