How Relationships Have or Are Affecting the College Experience in Social, Academic, and Athletic Life.
Dallas Tarkenton, David Mercer, Elaina Finkelstein, Eric Shaw
University of Mary Washington
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Introduction and Background
The time enrolled at a University is an exciting experience when young adults experiment with living as an individual without parental control. Whether it is learning how to do laundry, or figuring out how to balance social life with work, this is an important time where teenagers learn how to live in society as a young adult. The term college life encompass more than just school work. It engulfs areas such as: relationships, friendships, campus organizations, campus activities, etc. One of the most prevalent components mentioned is that of relationships. Bernales and Colonia (2011) wrote, “most university students are synchronizing their time in both academic and romantic aspect. Engaging themselves in this romantic relationship enables them to feel that someone cares for them, shows affection to them, loves them, etc.” In accordance with the assertions made by Bernales and Colonia we believe that relationships are a cornerstone in the college experience.
This study is focused on relationships and the outcome they have on college students in current times. The research collected and supported by data on this topic will explain how students have been mentally affected, or might be currently affected by relationships. This study also dives into the after effects of relationships and how the lingering aftermath could mentally block and inhibit college students’ view on relationships thus possibly preventing further dating. Our main goal however is to investigate if relationships of any kind have a generally positive or negative effect on the people involved in the collegiate lifestyle.
Literature Review
For this study, information from past studies on college relationships, and the college dating scene were studied to guide exploration on mentalities behind relationships in college. Latoya Newman (2016) dives into the basics of stress in dating in college by looking at the time commitments, pressures of social and cultural norms in the collegiate environment, as well as the effect that the relationship has on the individual. From the popular hookup culture to the time commitment of school and other activities and how they interfere with societal pressures that dating revolves around, this article displays that the collegiate world of dating is an intricate and open topic that has shown how difficult relationships and social norms are in the collegiate environment.
The second work cited for this study is Psychological Abuse Perpetration in College Dating Relationships: Contributions of Gender, Stress, and Adult Attachment Orientations. This piece explores the psychological abuse surrounding college dating and how different attributes affect relationships. This study specifically focused on “…gender, stressful problems, (fear of abandonment by a romantic partner), and adult attachment avoidance (discomfort with closeness) solely or collectively contributed to self-reported perpetration of emotional abuse.” Gormley and Lopez (2009) used Adult Attachment Orientation and Stress as the two main categories during this study and then theorized that higher levels of these categories and gender would affect emotional abuse. 127 (66 women and 61 men) were used in this study to examine psychological affects on relationships and given a test where they were tested on Adult Attachment Orientation and other questions involving common problems in the college environment. The study found that due to stress, AAO is activated and can be used in relationships in a negative aspect. In correlation to this study, these both of these articles supported the general idea behind this study of proving whether relationships will have a positive or negative effect on the college experience.
Research Questions
The overarching question of our research is, how exactly do relationships affect the college experience? In order to answer this question we had three basic research questions. RQ1. Has your relationship had a positive, neutral, or negative effect on your academic life? RQ3. Has your relationship had a positive, neutral, or negative effect on your athletic life? We felt that these three areas best encompass the college experience. We figured that if we could get any consistency amongst responses to our interview, then we would be able to analyze and answer our research question.
Methods
Subjects
The participants that were included in this study were college students between the ages of 18 and 23.The sample was selected from a variety of interracial and interethnic students. The participants were selected by way of the purposive/judgmental and convenience sampling method. The students that were interviewed were asked if they would participate because they were in relatively close distance of the interviewers. All of the students were from the University of Mary Washington. Students were identified as either currently in a relationship or recently in a relationship. The categorization of the participants contained twenty individuals. Five males and five females were prompted as being recently in a relationship. The individuals in couples were interviewed separately so that the presence of their significant other did not influence their answers. Five couples were questioned as currently being in a relationship.
Instruments
The effects of the intimate relationship were measured by a 15-30 minute interview. The interview consisted of four questions for individuals currently not in a relationship, and eight questions for the couples in a relationship. Each couple was interviewed separately in order to allow individuals to respond truthfully without having to worry about their partner influencing their answers. The interviews were recorded via iPhones and then were transcribed on computers. The intention was to measure how the social, academic, and athletic aspects of their college experience are affected.
The interview was conducted with a survey that was used to guide the interview. The survey contained four questions for both partners to answer. Our questions were: 1). Has your relationship with your significant other made your college experience more positive or negative? 2.) Has your relationship with your significant other given you more motivation to stay in school or participate better in classes? 3.) Has being in a relationship positively or negatively affected your social life at school? 4.) If it weren’t for your significant other, would you have transferred or dropped out of school?” These questions were designed to understand how relationships affect the aspiring “college experience”. After the subjects completed the interview, the questions were gathered and the the data was coded. We generally asked very few follow up questions and when we did it was to get a more clear sense of the positivity or negativity of the original response.
Procedure
Couples and individuals were interviewed by each of the members of the research team and were audio recorded as well as notes by a researcher to provide sufficient and thorough record of the interview. After the couples and individuals no longer in relationships were interviewed each of the investigating member carefully transcribed the report to be considered for research. After we transcribed the interviews, we sat down and reviewed the answers for each of the questions. We checked for consistency amongst answers and grouped the results in sections of positive, negative, and neutral. From there we made our final deductions.
Results
The results revealed several themes that display different levels of satisfaction with the college experience for individuals who used to be and are currently in relationships. Interestingly enough, couples currently in relationships view their significant other as a positive impact in their overall college experience. Furthermore, couples currently in relationships mostly gave the same responses by agreeing that their significant other had overall positively impacted their college experience. The couples also all gave positive remarks when discussing improvements in their social life. They explained that their significant other opened them to new clubs, new friends, and an overall more diverse and exciting campus life. Interestingly enough, all the couples that were interviewed all commented that their significant other has firmly impacted their academic life by giving each other motivation and reassurance when it comes to academic achievement. When interviewing subjects about how their significant other positively or negatively affected their athletic life, the responses received were mostly neutral in the sense that they didn’t notice a positive or negative effect. Two couples were active in university sports, and they agreed that it only makes their experience more positive.
Likewise, the individuals who were interviewed that are no longer in a relationship responded similarly to the individuals in a relationship about the impact that dating has on the college experience. Most individuals who were recently out of a relationship explain that the overall experience with their significant other was a positive learning experience. The general consensus agreed the relationship brought stress in their own personal lives due to lack of sleep, arguments affecting other areas, and sexual stress. Athletic individuals showed a neutral response to dating, having little to no effect on their athletic career in college. Social life was generally a positively effected theme. Lastly, academics were affected generally in a positive manner by individuals who were and are currently not in a relationship.
Discussion/Conclusion
Throughout the conducting of surveys and analysis of the results, we were able to find a several themes that helped to justify our research. The themes pertained to academic, social, and athletic life; as well as the overall experience. The themes that were present for individuals who are currently in a relationship: Relationships have a positive effect on each of the aforementioned categories: Academic, Social, and Athletic life and the Overall Experience on a consistent basis. For Individuals who were in a relationship and are now not in one, the theme of positive affect was present in the following categories: Academic, Social, and Overall Experience.
The College Experience is one that is essential to the future of young adults. It is a time where teenagers transform into the leaders of the future. During this time there is a lot that goes into the evolution of these young adults. Students become involved with not only academics, but campus organizations and athletics and numerous other extracurricular activities. One of the greatest factors that weighs on each of the previously stated areas is relationships. While sometimes relationships can add a slight bit of stress to college students, they usually tend to have a generally positive effect on many aspects of the College Experience.
References
- Bernales, A., Colonia. F. (2011) The Effects of Romantic Relationships on the Academic Performance of University of the Philippines – Cebu College Students. University of the Philippines Cebu College.
- Gormley, B., & Lopez, F. G. (2009). Psychological Abuse Perpetration in College Dating Relationships: Contributions of Gender, Stress, and Adult Attachment Orientations. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 25(2), 204-218.
- Newman, L. (2016). How Do Committed Relationships Affect College Students? | The Classroom | Synonym. Demand Media, Web.
Data for Individuals in Relationships
Table 1. Displays the duration of the relationships, specific examples from subjects who were interviewed and the effect that was identified for each classification. This table shows the results for individuals who are currently in relationships.
| Time Period | Example | Positive/Negative/Neutral Effects | |
| Academics | 1 Year and 4 Months | “He motivates me because he does so well. It makes me want to do well.” | Positive |
| Social | 1 Year and 5 Months | “We’re in the same friend group so it is really easy to get along because we’re both so close to our friends and eachother.” | Positive |
| Athletic | 6 Months | “Being on the same team with him is great because we both understand how busy [it is] being involved in a sport on campus is.” | Positive |
| Overall Experience | 5 Months | “We support each other so we can vent to each other when we’ve had a rough day. It’s nice to have someone who understands what I’m going through too.” | Positive |
Data for Individuals not in Relationships
Table 2. Displays the duration of the relationships, specific examples from subjects who were interviewed and the effect that was identified for each classification. This table shows the results for individuals who were, but are no longer in relationships.
| Time Period | Example | Positive/Negative/Neutral Effects | |
| Academics | 1 year 4 months | “My best grades academically were with her…” | Positive |
| Social | 4 ½ months | “I had someone to share new experiences with, but I had rare free time to hangout with friends.” | Positive |
| Athletic | 1 year 11 months | “I would have performed the same with or without him.” | Neutral |
| Overall Experience | 4 months | “Just having someone there to help get away from all the everyday stress is probably the best part about the relationship.” | Positive |
