Bahns, A. J., Crandall, C. S., Canevello, A., & Crocker, J. (2013, March). Deciding to dissolve: Individual- and relationship-level predictors of roommate breakup. Basic and Applied Social Psychology. Retrieved October 15, 2019, from https://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=9&sid=754a20b6-3d55-4ad3-be97-6febefaec040@pdc-v-sessmgr03&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ==#AN=86178908&db=aph.

 

College freshman who roomed together with random roommates had a similar possibility of having success or dissolving later in the year.  When they roomed together, the school had made a questionnaire containing preferences of the students that would have made them better pairs however, it was individual factors that made the students decide to end the non romantic relationship and the availability of abandoning the current roommate pairing.  When the college allowed students to separate at the end of the year, many students did indeed separate.
 

Bland, H. W., Melton, B. F., Welle, P., & Bigham, L. (2012). Stress tolerance: New

challenges for millennial college. College Student Journal, 362. Retrieved from http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/77698067/stress-tolerance-new-challenges-millennial-college-students.

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While there are many challenges associated with going to college, living in a dorm room with one or more people is an overlooked issue among college students.  Being able to cope with these issues and find effective ways of destressing are essential for college living. Ten coping factors (out of 29) were significantly statistically relevant to college students with high stress tolerance. These students who are unable to handle the stress of their new college classes or the new campus and will return to their dorm room and take out these frustrations on their roommates. These strategies are crucial because ineffective coping strategies and behaviors have made new students less tolerant of stress in their freshman year of college. 

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Bonfiglio, R. (2014). 4 Ways to solve roommate conflict. First Things First. Retrieved from https://u.osu.edu/uofye/2014/09/10/4-ways-to-solve-roommate-conflict/

 

Rather than trying to find a better way to match roommates, Ohio State University prepares students to deal with conflict by suggesting methods students can use. These include: using polite and honest communication, knowing how to pick your battles, and respecting each other’s space and differing views. The overall theme is to focus on how you can be a good roommate rather than complaining and thinking negatively about your roommate. According to Ohio State University Analysis and Reporting, they have a freshman retention rate of 94.1% which corresponds to the roommate relationship success they have experienced.  

 

Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2016). American time use survey. Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/tus/charts/students.html

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides three charts and graphs to illustrate how full-time students spend their free time throughout a twenty-four hour period. The information provided shows how students use their time when they aren't in class, whether it be for leisure activities or for studying for classes. Within a twenty-four hour period, the two activities, other than sleeping, that take up the most hours during the day are leisure activities/sports, and educational activities. Now seeing that educational activities are one of the most time-consuming activities in an average students day, there is a separate graph that shows typically what time of the day students participate in educational activities. From 9am-2pm is when students tend to engage in their educational activities the most. By acknowledging whether or not a student typically engages in educational activities can help better pair students who engage in such activities. For instance, if a student is more active in educational activities, and their roommate does not, the student who refrains from such activities could potentially distract the student trying to participate, thus creating tension.  

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Garber-Paul, E. (2014). The new science of pairing roommates. Rolling Stone, (1216), 32.

Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=97441101&site=ehost-live

 

Universities believe that acclimating to the quirks of a complete stranger was an essential part of college. Schools like NYU and Stanford still use that practice with their 1,700 incoming freshmen who are hand-paired by two upperclassmen. An informal survey found that in the past half decade, most universities have moved to more modern systems – by 2012, about 70% allowed incoming freshmen to select roommates. These universities use modern programs like RoomSync, Roomsurf, and Roommate Fit while other schools have proprietary systems, like Oregon State, which lets incoming freshmen use a school-only social network to choose future roommates.

 

Hanasono, L. K., & Nadler, L. B. (2012). A dialectical approach to rethinking roommate relationships. Journal of College Student Development, 53(5), 623-635. Retrieved from http://ulib.iupui.edu/cgi-bin/proxy.pl?url=http://search.proquest.com.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/docview/1287027322?accountid=7398

 

Students that showed similar results in a questionnaire, called the Roommate Typology Questionnaire, regarding independence and instrumentality showed higher results of roommate satisfaction. In this questionnaire, it used items that asked about what a person’s ideal and actual relationships with their roommates. Roommates who shared the same ideal type had significantly greater corresponding levels of relational satisfaction than those who did not. The effect size for this was Cohen’s d = .72.

 

Ingalls, Z. (2000). The art, science, and guesswork of pairing roommates.

Chronicle of Higher Education, A41. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=3432661&site=ehost-live

 

Davidson College, located close to Charlotte, North Carolina, uses the Myers-Briggs personality-assessment test to pair college roommates. The Myers-Briggs test is a standardized personality assessment used to help identify differences and similarities that can cause or obviate conflict.  Davidson's staff members score the tests and note the student's personality type. Myers-Briggs and similar personality tests have been used by some colleges to match roommates since the early 1970's. Student success is predicated on how well they get along with a roommate and Davidson has a 96% retention rate between freshman and sophomore year. Davidson officials credit the Myers-Briggs test for their high retention rate.

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Jessica, J. (2017). Leisure activities and hobbies preferred by third year college students. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/login.aspx direct=true&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.D8A4B4FA&site=eds-live

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The study was conducted to determine what the leisure activities and hobbies third-year college students participate in. It was shown that using computers and other forms of technology topped the list, specifically using said technology for social media. The modernization of different leisure activities and hobbies affects how much it appeals to students. It is important that students continue to involve themselves in different leisure activities and healthy hobbies to keep their minds sharp and maintain a healthy lifestyle and attitude. If students can keep themselves occupied with other leisure activities, they can limit the time they are in their dorm, and if they have a negative relationship with their roommate, they can limit the amount of conflict as well. 

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Julian, S. (2010). Stanford's freshman roommate matching secrets revealed. Stanford News.

Retrieved from https://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/september/freshman-roommate-

Match-091410.html

 

Stanford uses a surprising method to match roommates: two current students do it. The rational was that they recently lived through the on-campus housing and they are up-to-date on student preferences such as music artists. The incoming freshmen fill out the typical questionnaire about sleeping habits, socialization, etc., but then they are also asked to rank each of questions based on how important each of the factors are to them. Finally, they must write a short essay on their living habits to provide insight that the multiple-choice questions typically overlook. With this information, the upperclassmen who make the decision hand pick roommates for all freshman. Rooming assignments are withheld from students until move-in day to prevent students from looking each other up on social media. Their goal is to reduce students making judgments about each other and coming to unfair conclusions before they have met. 

 

Kaegebein, D. L. (1982). Roommate compatibility in college freshwomen. Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global: Social Sciences. (303236255). Retrieved from http://ulib.iupui.edu/cgi-bin/proxy.pl?url=http://search.proquest.com.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/docview/303236255?accountid=7398

 

Roommate compatibility is not always based on how many things two people have in common. Many commonality items were analyzed and none showed to be overtly significant, showing that matching roommates is more than just finding things in common with the two people involved. This is still an important, albeit minor, factor in determining roommate success.

 

 Kremer, M., & Levy, D. (2008). Peer effects and alcohol use among college students. Journal of Economic Perspectives, p. 189-206. Retrieved September 30, 2019, from https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.22.3.189.

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Students who had consumed alcohol were more likely to influence other students who had not consumed alcohol prior to their first semester.  This trend is heavily prevalent for males, as it was estimated that more drinking happens in male dorm rooms.  These students were seen to have had a Grade Point Average (GPA) one quarter-point lower than those students who had not gotten a roommate who had drunken previously. If a student who did not want to engage in underage drinking or any form of party activity, especially in a male dorm, they would enjoy their college experience and dorm life experience less and be more pressured to try alcohol than a dorm that had no alcohol drinkers or any female dorm. 

 

Lewin, T. (2014). What makes a positive college experience? The New York Times. Retrieved from nytimes.com/2014/04/13/education/edlife/what-makes-a-positive-college-

experiece.html

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If you are able to surround yourself with positive people with whom you enjoy spending time with, your experience will be a positive one. When picking classes, it is best to pick a good teacher, as opposed to a particular topic, as a good teacher can make any class/topic enjoyable, which will lead to a better overall experience with your classes and reduce stress. If students can build a positive college experience outside of their dorm room, they can overpower their negative experiences with their roommate.

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Marek, C. I., Wanzer, M. B., & Knapp, J. L. (2004). An exploratory investigation of the relationship between roommates’ first impressions and subsequent communication patterns. Communication Research Reports, 21(2), 210-220. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Melissa_Wanzer/publication/233319197_An_exploratory_investigation_of_the_relationship_between_roommates%27_first_impressions_and_subsequent_communication_patterns/links/563135e708ae0530378d145a.pdf

 

Roommates that scored higher in the first impression scale reported greater satisfaction than those who scored lower. These people who scored high in this area also tended to have positive and productive conflict management styles, such as solution oriented, rather than non-confrontational conflict management styles. These roommates that scored high in these questionnaires had overall greater roommate satisfaction and would room with the same roommate the following year. 

 

Marostica, L. (2008). Colleges explore innovative ways to pair roommates. The Observer. Retrieved from https://fordhamobserver.com/1805/features/colleges-explore-innovative-ways-to-pairroommates/

 

Many colleges use a system where incoming students can choose their own roommates based on Facebook-esque profiles that they create. Incoming freshmen can search online for a future roommate whose profile looks compatible to theirs. Some colleges require incoming freshmen to provide all kinds of detailed information—from hobbies to TV habits to pet peeves. The University of Richmond even provides an entire page to answer an open-ended question at the end of their roommate form. Fordham College at Lincoln Center has students fill out an RL-100 that gauges what type of environment the student is looking for. It includes questions concerning sleeping habits, study habits, neatness and so on. Studies have shown that the Fordham College at Lincoln Center roommate matching system has been pretty effective.

 

McCorkle, S., & Mason, S. G. (2009). Conflict in residence halls: A preliminary

study of the efficacy of roommate negotiations to reduce roommate conflict. Boise State

University Scholar Works, 1-18. Retrieved from

https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=pubadm

in_facpubs.

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There are several different factors that would inhibit a new student from doing well at their university: A change of scenery, erratic sleep schedules, new professors, difficult class work, and having a dysfunctional living area.  There are few studies that directly relate college dorm life to difficulties in school, but there are many studies that highlight difficulties that can all be traced back to a potentially disruptive living situation. The largest issue is roommate selection. Tools including the Social Satisfaction Questionnaire (SSQ) are used at the one-month mark as a way to filter out which roommates would be successful or would separate later on in the semester. The problem is that because students are ill-equipped to handle new relationships and are simply not experienced enough in life to deal with them, the students cannot come to an agreement without conflict in their dorm.  This causes them to do poorly in their first year as students and could potentially cause them to leave the university.

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Molina, D. K., Heiselt, A., & Justice, C. (2015). From matchmaker to mediator: Shifting trends in roommate relationships in an era of individualism, diversity, conflict, and social media. Journal of College & University Student Housing, 41(2), 104–117. Retrievedefrom https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=103351881&site=ehost-live

 

The latest generation of college students are increasingly different from their parents and these trends are becoming evident in roommate matching. Aspects of Millennials that are changing the way roommates are selected are defined: a sense of entitlement, growing diversity, fewer siblings, and a greater sense of individuality. Showing how these traits lead to roommate conflict, it was suggested that the role of matching roommates needs to shift to someone who can deal with the inevitable conflict, and roommates should be assigned randomly.

 

Moore, A. S. (2010). Failure to communicate. The New York Times, p. 24. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost- 

com.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=52429788&sit e=ehost-live

 

A rising problem in college freshman is the inability to deal with conflict, and small problems are intensifying when students are not addressing them. Dana Pysz, the assistant director of Residence Life at UCLA, blames smartphones and technology. Pysz claims that young adults use social media as an outlet and therefore are not used to dealing with conflict face-to-face. When a problem arises, students are avoiding the situation by complaining to others rather than trying to mediate a compromise. In a focus group at North Carolina State University, students responded saying they would not even confront a noisy neighbor, but expected the RA’s to deal with it. Another aspect of poor conflict resolution skills comes from parents solving all of their children’s problems. 

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Morgan, C. (2015). Effects of personality preferences and perceptions of others’ conflict styles impact on roommate satisfaction. Retrieved from https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/ctamj/vol36/iss1/5/

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Roommates can experience many different conflicts, such as having different sleep schedules, general living habits, cleanliness, food, and items that can or cannot be shared. It is important for college roommates to be able to effectively resolve conflict to keep their college experience positive. The research sought to see if personality preferences would influence how roommates would resolve their conflicts. Roommates who prefered positive conflict strategies were far more effective at maintaining their relationship than those who used negative conflict strategies. By being able to pair roommates with people whom they perceive to have a personality that aligns with their own, the way they resolve conflict would tend to lean towards the positive side as opposed to degrading their relationship with negativity. 

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Reynolds, S. A. (2016). Exploring the relationship between individual personality factors and roommate selection among college students. Available from ProQuest Central; Psychology Database. (1868414210). Retrieved from http://ulib.iupui.edu/cgi-bin/proxy.pl?url=http://search.proquest.com.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/docview/1868414210?accountid=7398

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Using the Big 5 areas and facets of personality, measuring with the Neo-Pi-R, roommates were measured to see how likely they would be to choose the same roommate the following academic year. Students that score similarly in the Neo-Pi-R are more likely to room together for more than one year. The biggest determiner of how successful roommate longevity would be the Openness section of the results. Students with the same level of openness approach college in a similar manner which leads to socially rewarding experiences. This leads to reinforcement of beliefs that life has worthwhile experiences, again increasing the likelihood of rooming with the same roommate for following years.

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Sacerdote, B. (2001). Peer effects with random assignment: Results for Dartmouth. The

Quarterly Journal of Economics, 116 (2), 681–704. Retrieved from 

https://academic.oup.com/qje/article/116/2/681/1904199.

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After checking for signs of peer influence, it was found that certain decisions a freshman college student will make at their time at a university will be heavily influenced by their peer group and other decisions have been found to be unaffected by peer influence. Choices such as joining social groups or clubs were affected by the student’s peers but decisions such as college majors and therefore classes, were less influenced due to them being major life decisions.  It was also found that students who took part in Greek life on their campus and those who did not had similar GPA’s to their randomly assigned roommates.

 

Stern, L. A., Powers, J., Dhaene, K., Dix, A., & Shegog, S. (2007). Liking, cooperation, and satisfaction between roommates. Journal of College & University Student Housing, 34(2), 53–60. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=36075202&site=ehost-live

 

This study tested whether roommate satisfaction is higher when students pick their own roommates or when the Housing and Residence Life pick them. Both methods utilized an online profile that the students created. When students picked their own roommate, researchers found that students would lie in their profile to avoid other students looking down on them and criticizing their lifestyle choices. They were more concerned with their “image” than with finding a suitable roommate. When the HRL picked their roommates, the students were more honest in their profile because only HRL would see their answers and they didn’t have to worry about what other students thought of them. Overall, roommate satisfaction was higher when students picked their roommate in terms of cooperation because more likely than not, they previously knew each other and were aware of each other’s habits, lifestyle, etc.

 

Whitmore, C. B., & Dunsmore, J. C. (2014). Trust development: Testing a new model in

undergraduate roommate relationships. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 175(3),

233–251. Retrieved from

https://doi-org.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/10.1080/00221325.2013.869533

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In an effort to match roommates who will promote harmony, researchers tested the level of trust between roommates looking specifically at three factors in a longitudinal study of college freshmen: parental attachment, perceived similarity, and social exchange. Out of the three hypotheses, a common theme was that the quality and frequency of social exchanges within one month would heavily influence the level of trust formed between random roommates and could be predicted at five weeks. All of the results were surveys taken by the students. The results showed that perceived similarity and social exchange were vital in developing a meaningful relationship.

 

Young, S. (2013). Improving college roommate relationships with type. Personality

Playbook. Retrieved from

https://personalityplaybook.com/2013/08/31/improving-college-roommate-relationshis-

with-type/.

 

Some colleges use the Myers-Briggs personality-assessment test to pair roommates of similar types. A study showed that room changes decreased by 65% and residence hall damage by 35% after pairing roommates of similar types. The study also found GPAs to be higher in students with similar roommates. This test is an option for schools that can afford to administer it to its entire residence hall population.