Starting a new chapter in life and heading off to college can be an opportunity for rediscovery for some.  This “rediscovery” can be heavily impacted by your freshman year roommate.  Several studies on various aspects of a college students’ life, including health, mood, academic productivity, drinking habits, and social acceptance, have been conducted.  These studies show the large influence that roommates in their freshman year have on one another.  Some being positive, while others being unfortunately negative and less than beneficial to ones success.

Heading off to college could be a burden in more way than one and your weight may take a turn for the worse because of stress or various other reasons.  Although this is common some may be effected in the opposite way.  “A new study of Marquette University freshmen who had been randomly assigned to rooms found that women with heavier roommates actually gained less weight on average than those with thinner roommates —“.  The reason being, those overweight roommates tend to diet and these habits tend to be picked up by the other person.  I feel this theory is true.  If one sees the person they live with practicing healthy eating habits it makes them feel obligated to do the same.  In turn this can cause problems later down the line.  “Margo D. Maine, a psychologist and specialist in eating disorders, warns that young women age 17 to 19 are at risk of developing some form of eating disorder, and some may be particularly susceptible to a calorie-counting roommate.”

This topic especially interests me because I have six roommates.  Currently the room is on the health kick and everyone is working out and watching what they eat, some being more interested in this little experiment more than others.  I am excited to see how the whole situation plays out and who lasts because on day two of the diet some are up in arms on the strict limits that some of the others have set.

Another effect that caught my eye especially was the mood component.  With the amount of girls confined in the small space we all live in, tensions can fly high and there is always some type of drama.  In a recent study by one of University of Michigan’s assistant professors of public health, Daniel Eisenberg, shows that only in males will there be a an effect in mood based off the other person. According to Eisenberg, this is because “This mood contagion seems to occur when the student keeps his feelings bottled up.”  Girls don’t usually have this problem.  They are more than willing to voice their opinion and confront any issue they have.

In addition to the two short standing effects I discussed there may be aspects that may carry on down the road that you picked up from your roommate.  You can read about these other effects in this article The Science of Roommates.  All in all college is an experience that changes people.  In some ways good and some bad.  Your roommate freshman year can have an effect you never expected and I feel one should be conscious of their surroundings and to only be influenced by the good and steer clear of any bad as best possible.

Source:

Moore, Abigail Sullivan. “The Science of Roommates.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 24 July 2010. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.