Homesickness
Encyclopedia
Homesickness is the distress or impairment caused by an actual or anticipated separation from the specific home
environment
or attachment objects.
The term is in origin a loan translation of nostalgia
, a learned term coined in Baroque period medicine. The Oxford English Dictionary
describes homesickness as a feeling one has when missing home. Feelings of longing are often accompanied by anxiety and depression. These symptoms may range from mild to severe.
Homesickness frequently occurs when one travel
s and may be exacerbated by unfamiliar environments or foreign cultural contexts. Homesickness is especially common in youth
. Young people may experience a sense of dread
, helplessness, or separation anxiety
on their first day of school, summer camp
, or on a protracted summer vacation
away from the family. Many first-year students at boarding school
s or universities
also experience homesickness. Some new members on military basic training and members on taskings might also experience it.
and attachments with things at home. Having those attachments seem to be a hindrance on children as they go to summer camps, sleepovers, as they travel and even more commonly, when they go to college. Homesickness can be associated with feelings of nostalgia
, grief
, depression
and adjustment disorders, all of which can affect people psychologically and emotionally. Symptoms in homesickness may be emotional, cognitive or physical.
In extreme cases, physical health problems accompany the hallmark symptom of homesickness, which is preoccupying thoughts of home. Most people describe homesickness as a want or longing to be back home, continuously missing their parents, siblings, spouse
, relatives, friends, pets and aspects of their familiar environments. People may describe their feelings as a deep sadness
, depression
, frustration, anger
or hopelessness. In very rare instances, suicidal thoughts may accompany feelings of missing home.
As homesickness is defined as feelings of one missing home, there are many different types of people who are affected by it. From young children to college students, homesickness can impact people very negatively. If it is not dealt with effectively, homesickness can lead to other emotions that are much deeper and could ultimately psychologically damage some people.
Factors that may affect homesickness include:
from Homer’s The Odyssey. Odysseus wept and rolled on the hard ground thinking of home. Followed later were actual documented cases of homesickness. In the 17th century, Johannes Hofer, a Swiss physician, diagnosed a young man on his deathbed with homesickness. After releasing him to go home, his condition immediately improved. In the earliest days of European settlement in North America, many colonists longed for their faraway homes and displayed such longings publicly.
The Europeans who migrated to America in the early seventeenth century did not have the modern lexicon to describe their feelings, but diaries, letters, and histories reveal that yearning was part and parcel of the colonizing experience. Although such scattered references to homesickness appeared in journals and letters, Americans first perceived the emotion as a widespread social problem during the Revolutionary War, when thousands of men left home to fight and countless soldiers complained of homesickness. Following the Revolution, Americans underwent a dramatic transformation. This was the first time in American history that the people readily had available resources such as canals, steamboats, and railroads. As a result, these Americans left their homes in search of change, finding out that it gave them a sense of “dislocation
” and homesickness.
and the processes in which individuals disclose personal information about themselves. This is important to homesickness in the aspect that individuals will be more likely to self-disclose when they are in an environment that they are familiar or comfortable with, such as “home”.
Often homesickness is somewhat hard to diagnose. Individuals tend to withdraw socially, mentally returning to comforting thoughts of home. An immediate remedy for homesickness is to return home. However this is not always an option and in many cases can be more harmful to the development of the individual.
The first method of coping with homesick individuals is addressing the cognitive components. If individual’s cognitions are manipulated then they will tend to not experience the symptom of homesickness. Cognitions of home are either altered or totally avoided when trying relieving homesickness. Getting homesick individuals to participate in games, task, or assignment will redirect conscious thought away from home. Cognition is a large factor to why an individual experiences homesickness and by making a homesick individual change their conscious thoughts it will help them cope with homesickness. Also participation in activities will reduce uncertainty homesick individuals have about new environments
The second aspect of homesickness is the affective state or emotional state. This is more problematic because the emotions experienced with homesickness must be internally processed. Emotions like sadness, depression and withdrawal are experienced by homesick individuals and can’t be immediately relieved . Counseling and discussion of feelings with a trusted individual is a method to help relieve some of the anxiety and stress. There are direct methods to ease some of the symptoms like writing a letter, or calling home. Direct contact with home is a reassurance of the security of the home.
Psychologists say that the best way to prevent homesickness is to spend practice time away from home. Previous experience away helps develop and refine the coping skills most effective for an individual. A study by the American Academy of Pediatrics published in January, 2007, in the journal Pediatrics, also recommends that parents involve children in every aspect of planning separation, and not offer to pick the child up before the period of separation is scheduled to end. New thinking needed on helping kids avoid or cope with homesickness, experts say. By Kara Gavin, University of Michigan Health System. January 2, 2007.
Once separated from home, children and adults report that the most effective ways of coping include:
Home
A home is a place of residence or refuge. When it refers to a building, it is usually a place in which an individual or a family can rest and store personal property. Most modern-day households contain sanitary facilities and a means of preparing food. Animals have their own homes as well, either...
environment
Social environment
The social environment of an individual, also called social context or milieu, is the culture that s/he was educated or lives in, and the people and institutions with whom the person interacts....
or attachment objects.
The term is in origin a loan translation of nostalgia
Nostalgia
The term nostalgia describes a yearning for the past, often in idealized form.The word is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of , meaning "returning home", a Homeric word, and , meaning "pain, ache"...
, a learned term coined in Baroque period medicine. The Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
describes homesickness as a feeling one has when missing home. Feelings of longing are often accompanied by anxiety and depression. These symptoms may range from mild to severe.
Homesickness frequently occurs when one travel
Travel
Travel is the movement of people or objects between relatively distant geographical locations. 'Travel' can also include relatively short stays between successive movements.-Etymology:...
s and may be exacerbated by unfamiliar environments or foreign cultural contexts. Homesickness is especially common in youth
Youth
Youth is the time of life between childhood and adulthood . Definitions of the specific age range that constitutes youth vary. An individual's actual maturity may not correspond to their chronological age, as immature individuals could exist at all ages.-Usage:Around the world, the terms "youth",...
. Young people may experience a sense of dread
Dread
Dread may refer to* Dread , a fearful emotion.* Angst, a profound and deep-seated spiritual condition of insecurity and despair in the free human being in Existentialist thought...
, helplessness, or separation anxiety
Separation anxiety
Separation anxiety may refer to:*Separation anxiety disorder or Separation anxiety test*Spider-Man & Venom: Separation Anxiety, a 1995 SNES video game*Separation Anxieties, a 2000 album by 12 Rods...
on their first day of school, summer camp
Summer camp
Summer camp is a supervised program for children or teenagers conducted during the summer months in some countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer camp are known as campers....
, or on a protracted summer vacation
Summer vacation
Summer vacation is a vacation in the summertime between school years in which students and instructors are off school typically between 6 and 12 weeks, depending on the country and district.-Students:In some countries, students participate in programs such as organized sports, summer camps, and...
away from the family. Many first-year students at boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
s or universities
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
also experience homesickness. Some new members on military basic training and members on taskings might also experience it.
Overview
As children, people develop feelings about homeHome
A home is a place of residence or refuge. When it refers to a building, it is usually a place in which an individual or a family can rest and store personal property. Most modern-day households contain sanitary facilities and a means of preparing food. Animals have their own homes as well, either...
and attachments with things at home. Having those attachments seem to be a hindrance on children as they go to summer camps, sleepovers, as they travel and even more commonly, when they go to college. Homesickness can be associated with feelings of nostalgia
Nostalgia
The term nostalgia describes a yearning for the past, often in idealized form.The word is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of , meaning "returning home", a Homeric word, and , meaning "pain, ache"...
, grief
Grief
Grief is a multi-faceted response to loss, particularly to the loss of someone or something to which a bond was formed. Although conventionally focused on the emotional response to loss, it also has physical, cognitive, behavioral, social, and philosophical dimensions...
, depression
Depression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
and adjustment disorders, all of which can affect people psychologically and emotionally. Symptoms in homesickness may be emotional, cognitive or physical.
In extreme cases, physical health problems accompany the hallmark symptom of homesickness, which is preoccupying thoughts of home. Most people describe homesickness as a want or longing to be back home, continuously missing their parents, siblings, spouse
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
, relatives, friends, pets and aspects of their familiar environments. People may describe their feelings as a deep sadness
Suffering
Suffering, or pain in a broad sense, is an individual's basic affective experience of unpleasantness and aversion associated with harm or threat of harm. Suffering may be qualified as physical or mental. It may come in all degrees of intensity, from mild to intolerable. Factors of duration and...
, depression
Depression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
, frustration, anger
Anger
Anger is an automatic response to ill treatment. It is the way a person indicates he or she will not tolerate certain types of behaviour. It is a feedback mechanism in which an unpleasant stimulus is met with an unpleasant response....
or hopelessness. In very rare instances, suicidal thoughts may accompany feelings of missing home.
As homesickness is defined as feelings of one missing home, there are many different types of people who are affected by it. From young children to college students, homesickness can impact people very negatively. If it is not dealt with effectively, homesickness can lead to other emotions that are much deeper and could ultimately psychologically damage some people.
Factors that may affect homesickness include:
- Age - Children are more prone to homesickness than adults
- Gender - There is still debate about gender differences and homesickness.
- Culture - The comparison of Turkish first year students to Americans
- Rigidity - This can cause a strong attachment to your routine or “home” life, making homesickness very relevant and difficult.
History
Homesickness can be traced back to OdysseusOdysseus
Odysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
from Homer’s The Odyssey. Odysseus wept and rolled on the hard ground thinking of home. Followed later were actual documented cases of homesickness. In the 17th century, Johannes Hofer, a Swiss physician, diagnosed a young man on his deathbed with homesickness. After releasing him to go home, his condition immediately improved. In the earliest days of European settlement in North America, many colonists longed for their faraway homes and displayed such longings publicly.
The Europeans who migrated to America in the early seventeenth century did not have the modern lexicon to describe their feelings, but diaries, letters, and histories reveal that yearning was part and parcel of the colonizing experience. Although such scattered references to homesickness appeared in journals and letters, Americans first perceived the emotion as a widespread social problem during the Revolutionary War, when thousands of men left home to fight and countless soldiers complained of homesickness. Following the Revolution, Americans underwent a dramatic transformation. This was the first time in American history that the people readily had available resources such as canals, steamboats, and railroads. As a result, these Americans left their homes in search of change, finding out that it gave them a sense of “dislocation
Dislocation
In materials science, a dislocation is a crystallographic defect, or irregularity, within a crystal structure. The presence of dislocations strongly influences many of the properties of materials...
” and homesickness.
Modern research
Today, homesickness is recognized more in children and more quickly identified. Modern researchers document case studies and more in-depth feelings surface. The feelings that are mostly identified with homesickness are nostalgia, grief, depression, anxiety, sadness, withdrawal, and adjustment disorders.- Grief - Can be described as the emotional pain or anguish that someone feels after the loss of a loved one. This relates to homesickness in that homesickness is a grief-like symptom caused by missing one's home. In addition, according to Fisher (1989) homesickness and grief are two affective emotions associated with a particular and known cause, like a “loss”.
- TopophiliaTopophiliaTopophilia is described in Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language as literally "love of place". It is a term used to describe the strong sense of place or identity among certain peoples....
- This particular phobia is characterized by relationships between human beings and their environment. According to the author Tuan, "Beyond clothing, a person invests bits of his emotional life in his home, and beyond the home in his neighborhood. To be forcibly evicted from one's home and neighborhood is to be stripped of a sheathing, which in its familiarity protects the human being from the bewilderments of the outside world". Topophilia is characterized by an individual’s attachment to their surroundings. According to Tuan (1974) topophilic persons can view their environment as a symbol or a carrier for emotionally charged events causing a high level of topophilic sentiments. These sentiments can therefore be origins for homesickness
- Adjustment Disorders - According to the DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) criteria, adjustment disorder is a maladaptive response to an identifiable psychosocial stressor occurring within three months and remitting within six months of the termination of the stressor. Severe homesickness may be seen as a particular form of two of these subtypes, namely adjustment disorder with depressed mood or adjustment disorder with physical complaints, when two other conditions are fulfilled, namely being away from home (the stressor) and thinking a lot about home.
- Other Feelings and Disorders
- Withdrawal
- Sadness
- AgoraphobiaAgoraphobiaAgoraphobia is an anxiety disorder defined as a morbid fear of having a panic attack or panic-like symptoms in a situation from which it is perceived to be difficult to escape. These situations can include, but are not limited to, wide-open spaces, crowds, or uncontrolled social conditions...
- ClaustrophobiaClaustrophobiaClaustrophobia is the fear of having no escape and being closed in small spaces or rooms...
Uncertainty reduction theory
Uncertainty Reduction Theory discusses the processes through which individuals go to reduce uncertainty about one another when placed in an unknown or unfamiliar environment (Berger & Calabrese, 100). Homesickness directly relates to this theory in the processes in which individuals face homesickness when placed in an unfamiliar place and how this affects their uncertainty reduction. Particular situations where Uncertainty Reduction Theory and Homesickness can be viewed in atmospheres where the individual is relocated to a new environment with new peers for an abbreviated amount of time or permanently (e.g. summer camps, boarding schools, military, and college campuses).Social penetration theory
Social Penetration Theory describes self-disclosureSelf-disclosure
Self-disclosure is both the conscious and subconscious act of revealing more about oneself to others. This may include, but is not limited to, thoughts, feelings, aspirations, goals, failures, successes, fears, dreams as well as one's likes, dislikes, and favorites.Typically, a self-disclosure...
and the processes in which individuals disclose personal information about themselves. This is important to homesickness in the aspect that individuals will be more likely to self-disclose when they are in an environment that they are familiar or comfortable with, such as “home”.
Coping
Coping is a method used by individuals to lessen the effects of a negative situation. Homesickness is a state of being that includes both cognitive process and complicated emotions. Feelings associated with homesickness are anxiety, depression, sadness, and withdrawal. About three quarters of children experience homesickness to some degree and thus must cope somehow with the experience.Often homesickness is somewhat hard to diagnose. Individuals tend to withdraw socially, mentally returning to comforting thoughts of home. An immediate remedy for homesickness is to return home. However this is not always an option and in many cases can be more harmful to the development of the individual.
The first method of coping with homesick individuals is addressing the cognitive components. If individual’s cognitions are manipulated then they will tend to not experience the symptom of homesickness. Cognitions of home are either altered or totally avoided when trying relieving homesickness. Getting homesick individuals to participate in games, task, or assignment will redirect conscious thought away from home. Cognition is a large factor to why an individual experiences homesickness and by making a homesick individual change their conscious thoughts it will help them cope with homesickness. Also participation in activities will reduce uncertainty homesick individuals have about new environments
The second aspect of homesickness is the affective state or emotional state. This is more problematic because the emotions experienced with homesickness must be internally processed. Emotions like sadness, depression and withdrawal are experienced by homesick individuals and can’t be immediately relieved . Counseling and discussion of feelings with a trusted individual is a method to help relieve some of the anxiety and stress. There are direct methods to ease some of the symptoms like writing a letter, or calling home. Direct contact with home is a reassurance of the security of the home.
Psychologists say that the best way to prevent homesickness is to spend practice time away from home. Previous experience away helps develop and refine the coping skills most effective for an individual. A study by the American Academy of Pediatrics published in January, 2007, in the journal Pediatrics, also recommends that parents involve children in every aspect of planning separation, and not offer to pick the child up before the period of separation is scheduled to end. New thinking needed on helping kids avoid or cope with homesickness, experts say. By Kara Gavin, University of Michigan Health System. January 2, 2007.
Once separated from home, children and adults report that the most effective ways of coping include:
- Keeping a positive attitude
- Maintaining contact with home, through letters (both traditional and electronic)
- Activity
- Communication
- Enjoying what's different about the novel environment
- Bringing a "transitional object" (something special from home)
External links
- CampSpirit.com - Ideas about homesickness prevention and treatment, especially with children, plus empirical research on homesickness phenomenology.
- CampParents.org - The American Camp Association's main page for parents, with links to more research on homesickness and materials for homesickness prevention.
- "Preventing and Treating Homesickness" - Direct link to the American Academy of Pediatrics clinical report published in the journal "Pediatrics"
- "Curing Homesickness" - profiles Dr. Christopher Thurber and his methods for preventing and dealing with homesickness.