Study: How Students See Parental Communication in the First-Year Experience

Traditional first-year students face a variety of transitions as they enter higher education, one significant change being a greater sense of autonomy as they move away from home.

Researchers at Washington State University wanted to understand how continued parental support during college could help mitigate negative health factors associated with starting college, such as increased stress, anxiety, depression and high-risk alcohol use.

The study of over 300 first-year college students found that those who did engage with their parents regularly were more likely to have a positive parent-student relationship, but only if the student reached out first.

The research offers insight into potential areas of strain or support that can improve parent-based interventions focused on promoting healthier parent-student relationships, which is tied to student success, according to the study.

The background: A 2024 survey of college students and parents, conducted by YouGov on behalf of UnitedHealthcare, found disparities between students’ mental health struggles and parents’ perceptions.

While 41 percent of college students said they’d experienced depression, only 18 percent of parents thought their children had ever been depressed. College students were less likely than their parents to say student-parent conversations around mental health were caring, supportive or empathetic, as well.

Previous research points to high-quality, supportive parent-student relationships and the positive connection to student success both during and after college, including less academic, social and emotional stress; increased functioning; and decreased feelings of loneliness, according to the research article.

The study: WSU researchers Jennifer Duckworth, Katherine Forsythe, Brittany Cooper and Laura Hill, alongside Matthew Bumpus, director of research and community impact at the Innovia Foundation, evaluated daily parent-student communication and how that impacted their relationship. The researchers looked at five factors: frequency, initiation of communication, modality, content and students’ perception of the relationship.

Initiation of communication is an important factor because it distinguishes between parental monitoring and voluntary disclosure from the child. Helicopter parenting, or hyperinvolved and overcontrolling behaviors, can be a risk factor for increased depression and anxiety among college students, whereas frequent communication is a positive outcome.

The demographics of students and parents can also highlight differences in communication. Female students are more likely to communicate frequently with parents compared to their male peers, and students from continuing-generation families are more likely to receive advice about the college transition compared to their first-generation peers.

Methodology: First-year WSU students and parents were recruited for the study prior to the start of the academic year, and all completed a baseline survey prior to the first day of classes. The survey sample includes 367 first-year undergraduates (ages 17 to 19) who completed at least one of seven daily surveys. Students were compensated up to $30 if they completed every survey.

Researchers quantified the data through days, asking students what they spoke about from the time they woke up to when they went to sleep, how many times they communicated with their parents, for how long and through what modalities, among other questions. Therefore, most results are calculated as percentages of days.

Results: On average, students communicated with a parent three out of four days for an average time of 25 minutes. When communicating with parents, most days students used text (68 percent of days) or phone calls (45 percent of days).

Parents gave advice around 40 percent of the days that they communicated with students. The most common conversation topics were studying or grades (48 percent of days), mental health (41 percent of days), or their friends and relationships (36 percent). Less common topics were drinking or substance use (14 percent of days) or time management (16 percent of days).

Female students were more likely to say they communicated with their parents than their male peers and to spend more time in those daily communications. Male students were more likely to say their parents initiated conversations with them.

Also on trend with previous studies, first-gen learners perceived their conversations with parents as less supportive compared to their classmates’. First-gen and students from racially and ethnically minoritized backgrounds also reported being honest less frequently with their parents and feeling less parental closeness at the baseline.

On average, more minutes spent communicating with parents was associated with increased positive feelings about the student’s relationship with the parent. Each day with some form of communication resulted in the student feeling more positive about their relationship, as well, particularly if interactions were longer or more frequent.

How the parent communicated was reflected in students’ feelings, too. Greater parental initiation of communication was associated with decreased positive feelings of the student-parent relationship, but perceived support could influence relationship perceptions positively.

So what? As higher education leaders look to increase student support and consider the role of parents and guardians in that work, researchers identified some trends that could be applied to institutional considerations.

• Students want support. Students reported feeling more positive sentiments toward their parents when they offered advice or discussed studying and grades, as well as discussion of friends and relationships. This could point to college students wanting their parents to be interested in their lives, researchers theorize. Family programming that looks to support students on their academic journey and new college experiences could be one way to emphasize this type of conversation. Alabama A&M University created parent webinars to help guide family members through the academic year to better support their learner.
• Inequities exist in on-campus connection. Continuing-generation students and ethnic and racial majority students were more likely to say they had in-person interactions with their parents, which researchers presume was tied to on-campus events. WSU has a tradition of Dads’ Weekend, which invites fathers to the university to participate in campus-led programming with their student. Lower first-gen and ethnic and racial minority participation could reflect lower levels of connection to university programming or less opportunity to travel to campus, which is something event coordinators can consider as they create parent-focused events. Duquesne University created a parents’ newsletter to make family members aware of upcoming events and other important details they may need.
• Texting communication is popular. The average student said they texted with their parents. This provides an opportunity for higher ed leaders to use texts for interventions and programming around student-parent relationships.

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