When young adults leave the family nest and go off to college, they're certain to suffer from a bit of homesickness -- as are their parents.

But their families aren't the only people college freshmen miss. Many female students, especially, suffer from "friendsickness," according to a new study.

These students can cope with their changing high school friendships by making new friends while remaining loyal to the old, said researchers from Pennsylvania State University.

"Because a student's peer group is the single most powerful influence on personal growth during the undergraduate years, colleges and universities have a responsibility to help first-year students adjust to their new social environment," said Jennifer Crissman Ishler, assistant professor of counselor education. "This is especially true at large universities where many first-year student classes contain hundreds of students."

In the study, which was presented at the annual meeting of the American College Personnel Association in Minneapolis, researchers looked at 91 first-year, full-time female college students at a large research university with an undergraduate enrollment of 34,000 students and an average freshman class of 6,000.

The students took a required three-credit seminar in which they were given five journal assignments and a final exam. The journal entries chronicled the students' efforts during the first semester to maintain ties with childhood and high school friends while at the same time cultivating new friendships on campus.

SURVEY Did you have trouble making friends in college? Yes, I had a tough adjustment. Yes, I mostly stuck with my high school friends. No, I made all new friends in college. No, I made new friends and kept the old. I didn't go to college. Results  |  Disclaimer

At semester's end, Crissman Ishler examined and coded journal entries for high school friendships, new college friendships, contrast of the two kinds of friendships, and the influence of friendships on students during the critical freshman year.

"Female first-year students have a difficult time letting go of their precollege friendships, a source of comfort and stability, as well as a link to the past," she said. "Many of the students appeared to grieve the loss of having friends who intimately knew and understood them. They spent much time and energy trying to maintain their pre-college friendships through e-mail, America Online's Instant Messenger, phone calls, visits to each other's campuses and visits home."

But this preoccupation with holding on to high school relationships would often get in the way of students forming new relationships in college, Crissman Ishler said. Female students seemed to fear that new friendships formed in college would lack the depth and intimacy of those friendships that took root in their growing-up years.

"After a month or two of college, first-year female students started to understand the need for making new friends at college. They remained loyal to their pre-college friends, but recognized that it was all right and indeed necessary to have friends at college," she said.

Crissman Ishler urged college administrators, faculty and student affairs professionals to work together to create opportunities for first-year students to meet new people -- both inside and outside the classroom.

"First-year seminars are an ideal way for instructors and students to create a community where students can discuss their experiences and feelings," she said. "Orientation activities can aid in bridging the gap between high school and college, providing both an introduction to the school's academic life and opportunities for new students to meet and interact."

Residence life staff and the Office of Student Activities can also play a role in helping students meet each other and get involved.