The associations between family disengagement, support, loneliness, and stress in young adults attending college

Abstract

Grounded in Olson’s Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems (1993), the associations between family disengagement, different sources of social support, loneliness, and stress for young adults were examined. Data were collected from 241 college students at three different time points: semester week 2, week 8, and week 14. Results indicated that students experienced increased levels of family disengagement as the semester progressed. Furthermore, a serial multiple mediation analysis indicated that family disengagement at T1 and T3 could be explained by perceptions of less family support, greater loneliness, and increased stress. Finally, a parallel multiple mediation analysis indicated that social support provided by friends (not family or special person support) significantly mediated loneliness over time. The results suggest that family disengagement is a natural process that young adults experience throughout college and provide a greater understanding of the role that social support plays with loneliness and perceived stress.