Skip to main content
Home
  • Connect!
  • Donate
  • My Account
  • Join/Login
  • S
  • Connect!
  • Join/Login
  • Home
  • About
    • What is Social and Personality Psychology?
    • Leadership
      • Elections
    • Get Involved
    • Committees
    • Diversity & Inclusion Initiatives
    • Government Relations
    • Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology
    • Governance Documents
    • Staff
    • Jobs at SPSP
      • Benefits of Working at SPSP
      • Current Openings
  • Members
    • Membership Categories and Rates
    • Member Demographics
    • Member Directory
    • APA Division 8
    • Fellowship
    • Listservs and Shared Interest Groups
    • Member Deals and Discounts
  • Publications
    • Best Practices
    • Publication Policies
    • Resources
    • PSPB
      • Editorial Philosophy
      • Manuscript Preparation/Submission Guidelines
      • PSPB Online
    • PSPR
      • Manuscript Preparation
      • PSPR Online
    • SPPS
      • Manuscript Preparation
      • SPPS Online
  • Events
    • 2022 Convention
    • Future/Past Conventions
    • Summer Psychology Forum
    • Society of Southeastern Social Psychologists
    • APA Convention (Division 8)
    • Student Opportunities
      • SISPP
      • SPUR
      • SASP
      • EASP
      • EAPP
    • Online Learning
  • Giving
    • Ways to Give
    • Planned Giving
    • Tribute Wall
    • Annual Reports
    • ARP Awards
  • Awards/Grants
    • Annual Awards
      • Senior Career Contribution Awards
      • Mid-Career Awards
      • Early Career Awards
      • Teaching and Mentoring Awards
      • Prizes for a Single Outstanding Contribution
      • Media Awards
      • Service Awards
      • Student Awards
      • Diversity Awards
    • Student Awards
      • Heritage Dissertation Research Award
      • Outstanding Research Award
      • Graduate Student Poster Award
      • Undergraduate Student Poster Award
      • Student Publication Prize
      • Jenessa Shapiro Graduate Research Award
      • Graduate Registration Award
      • Diversity Graduate Registration Award
      • Diversity Undergraduate Registration Award
    • Diversity Awards
      • Jenessa Shapiro Award for Contributions to Diversity and Inclusion
      • Jenessa Shapiro Graduate Research Award
      • Diversity Graduate Registration Award
      • Diversity Undergraduate Registration Award
    • Legacy Program
    • Registration Awards
      • Graduate Registration Award
      • Diversity Graduate Registration Award
      • Diversity Undergraduate Registration Award
      • Teacher/Scholar Registration Award
      • International Registration Award
      • International Bridge-Building Award
    • Small Research Grant Program
    • Small Conference Grant Program
    • Community Catalyst Grant Program
  • News
    • Character and Context Blog
    • Member Updates
    • Press Releases
    • Member Newsletter
    • Student Newsletter
  • Resources
    • Connect!
    • COVID-19
    • Free-Form Fridays
    • Students
      • Graduate Program Directory
      • Applying to Grad School
      • Life in Graduate School
    • Early Career
    • Primarily Undergraduate Institutions
    • Multimedia
      • #SPSPchat
      • SPSP Experts
      • Out of the Lab
      • Convention Videos
    • Funding
    • International Study and Work
    • Statistics & Data Analysis
    • Teaching
      • Recommended Textbooks
      • Syllabi Examples
      • Teaching Aids
      • Video
    • Applied Psychology
  • Careers
    • Find/Post a Job
    • Graduation Outcomes
    • Career Resources
    • Academic Job Market
    • Non-Academic Internships
    • Undergraduate Research
  • Connect!
  • Join/Login
  • Home
  • About
    • What is Social and Personality Psychology?
    • Leadership
      • Elections
    • Get Involved
    • Committees
    • Diversity & Inclusion Initiatives
    • Government Relations
    • Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology
    • Governance Documents
    • Staff
    • Jobs at SPSP
      • Benefits of Working at SPSP
      • Current Openings
  • Members
    • Membership Categories and Rates
    • Member Demographics
    • Member Directory
    • APA Division 8
    • Fellowship
    • Listservs and Shared Interest Groups
    • Member Deals and Discounts
  • Publications
    • Best Practices
    • Publication Policies
    • Resources
    • PSPB
      • Editorial Philosophy
      • Manuscript Preparation/Submission Guidelines
      • PSPB Online
    • PSPR
      • Manuscript Preparation
      • PSPR Online
    • SPPS
      • Manuscript Preparation
      • SPPS Online
  • Events
    • 2022 Convention
    • Future/Past Conventions
    • Summer Psychology Forum
    • Society of Southeastern Social Psychologists
    • APA Convention (Division 8)
    • Student Opportunities
      • SISPP
      • SPUR
      • SASP
      • EASP
      • EAPP
    • Online Learning
  • Giving
    • Ways to Give
    • Planned Giving
    • Tribute Wall
    • Annual Reports
    • ARP Awards
  • Awards/Grants
    • Annual Awards
      • Senior Career Contribution Awards
      • Mid-Career Awards
      • Early Career Awards
      • Teaching and Mentoring Awards
      • Prizes for a Single Outstanding Contribution
      • Media Awards
      • Service Awards
      • Student Awards
      • Diversity Awards
    • Student Awards
      • Heritage Dissertation Research Award
      • Outstanding Research Award
      • Graduate Student Poster Award
      • Undergraduate Student Poster Award
      • Student Publication Prize
      • Jenessa Shapiro Graduate Research Award
      • Graduate Registration Award
      • Diversity Graduate Registration Award
      • Diversity Undergraduate Registration Award
    • Diversity Awards
      • Jenessa Shapiro Award for Contributions to Diversity and Inclusion
      • Jenessa Shapiro Graduate Research Award
      • Diversity Graduate Registration Award
      • Diversity Undergraduate Registration Award
    • Legacy Program
    • Registration Awards
      • Graduate Registration Award
      • Diversity Graduate Registration Award
      • Diversity Undergraduate Registration Award
      • Teacher/Scholar Registration Award
      • International Registration Award
      • International Bridge-Building Award
    • Small Research Grant Program
    • Small Conference Grant Program
    • Community Catalyst Grant Program
  • News
    • Character and Context Blog
    • Member Updates
    • Press Releases
    • Member Newsletter
    • Student Newsletter
  • Resources
    • Connect!
    • COVID-19
    • Free-Form Fridays
    • Students
      • Graduate Program Directory
      • Applying to Grad School
      • Life in Graduate School
    • Early Career
    • Primarily Undergraduate Institutions
    • Multimedia
      • #SPSPchat
      • SPSP Experts
      • Out of the Lab
      • Convention Videos
    • Funding
    • International Study and Work
    • Statistics & Data Analysis
    • Teaching
      • Recommended Textbooks
      • Syllabi Examples
      • Teaching Aids
      • Video
    • Applied Psychology
  • Careers
    • Find/Post a Job
    • Graduation Outcomes
    • Career Resources
    • Academic Job Market
    • Non-Academic Internships
    • Undergraduate Research

You are here

Home » News » Press Releases

College Roommates Underestimate Each Other’s Distress, New Psychology Research Shows

Image of two college students reading and working on a laptop in a coffee shop
Monday, February 19, 2018

College roommates are sensitive to their roommate’s distress but tend to underestimate the level of distress being experienced by others, finds a newly published study from New York University psychology researchers.

The work, which appears in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, suggests that roommates’ perception of each other’s distress could be useful for monitoring the mental health of college students, but there are ways that students could be trained to be more accurate.

“Although college is an exciting time, many students feel academic and social pressure, and this can lead to serious distress” explains Qi Xu, an NYU doctoral student and the study’s lead author.

“College students can detect certain levels of distress in their roommates, and spot changes over the course of a semester, but they nonetheless underestimate the absolute level of distress,” adds Patrick Shrout, a professor in NYU’s Department of Psychology and the study’s senior author.  The researchers note that the study’s subjects had not been trained to spot distress, unlike other peers such as dormitory residential assistants.

“More universal training on how to identify and respond to the distress of peers might have the benefit of encouraging conversations among roommates about what actions each might take if he or she notices another experiencing extreme distress,” Xu and Shrout write.

In their study, the researchers studied 187 same-sex undergraduate roommate pairs who included Asian, Black, Hispanic, White, and biracial students.

At two times during the academic year—February and April—each roommate in the pair reported his or her own distress level as well as that perceived in the other roommate. Comparing these reports allowed the researchers to quantify accuracy and bias. In addition to systematically underestimating the level of distress of their roommate, students tended to believe their partner’s distress was similar to their own level of distress. Despite these biases, the judgements of their roommates reflected a component of truth. Those students who were judged to be most distressed were ones who tended to self-report extreme distress. 

Because they did the survey at two different times, the researchers were able to determine which students were becoming more (or less) distressed over time and to compare the changes to roommates rankings.  The biases found at the separate time points did not carry over to the inferences about distress change. When students’ reports indicated that their roommates were experiencing more distress, the target roommates tended self-report more distress as well.  With training regarding how to detect distress in others, the researchers say, roommates might be even more accurate in their judgments and could be a helpful in supporting a safety net for college students who are distressed.

The study was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (R01-AA017672), part of the National Institutes of Health.
 


News release courtesy of New York University. Media Contact: James Devitt, 212.998.6808, james.devitt@nyu.edu 
 

Sidebar: Convention
Sidebar: Journals
Sidebar: Press Contact

2022 Convention

SPSP 2022 Annual Convention in San Francisco CA February 17 - 19 2022
learn More

SPSP Journals

PSPB PSPR SPPS

learn more

Media Contact:

Annie Drinkard
Public and Media Relations Manager
press@spsp.org
Phone: (202) 869-3243


Share this page
 
Society for Personality and Social Psychology
1120 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 280
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 869-3240
spspinfo@spsp.org
Facebook Icon Twitter Icon LinkedIn Icon
  • Connect!
  • Join/Login
  • Home
  • About
  • Members
  • Publications
  • Events
  • Giving
  • Awards/Grants
  • News
  • Resources
  • Careers
© 2021. Society for Personality and Social Psychology®. All rights reserved.

View our Privacy Policy here.