How Kindness May Help Students Transition to College

My transition to college came at a time of worldwide disarray. Moving across the country in the fall of 2020 was not for the faint of heart; I was constantly fearful, and painfully aware of the heartache and anxiety those around me must have been feeling, as well. Walking into campus at 18 years old can be terrifying to begin with, and even more so for the class of 2024, our faces shrouded in masks and careful suspicion.

However, after a couple of days stranded alone in my dorm room (a single with two beds, as roommates were banned), I had a realization; just as I was, the freshmen around me were also yearning for some sort of social connection. The challenge was figuring out how to achieve this when classes were online and even going on a walk outside wasn’t allowed.

So, I began my journey of connecting with the people in my brand-new environment, while still doing my best to maintain safety precautions. Before long, I realized that it was the little things that helped me feel more at peace in my new home away from home. Holding doors open for people, complimenting cool hairstyles, and applauding fellow students for their input in class added up to not just more social connectivity for me, but a genuine increase in my own happiness and satisfaction.

A new study backs up my experience, suggesting that these little gestures of kindness may help students transition to college feeling happier and less anxious and lonely. 

Simon Fraser graduate student Tiara A. Cash led a research project that followed 193 young students at her school (over 55% East or South Asian and mostly female) during their first weeks of college in 2020 and 2021.

“As a former student athlete myself who personally went through a really difficult transition, I realized that I really wanted to understand the transition life cycle,” Cash said.

Participants completed a series of surveys weekly for six weeks. These surveys assessed various aspects of well-being, including happiness, flourishing, thriving, resilience, optimism, anxiety, and loneliness. They also included a checklist of 47 prosocial (kind, helpful, and other-oriented) actions, such as the following:

• Sharing notes with a classmate
• Holding the door open for someone behind you
• Doing favors without being asked
• Buying gifts for another for no reason
• Donating blood/care packages
• Baking treats and dropping them off to friends
• Offering road assistance
• Expressing thanks to another driver
• Lending an ear to someone in need

The results indicated that students experienced higher well-being during weeks when they engaged in more prosocial acts compared to their personal average. This finding was consistent across all seven aspects of well-being measured in the study, and it didn’t seem to matter whether the kind acts involved lots of social contact (like making conversation with a cashier) or not (like picking up garbage).

Thus, the data supports the notion that prosocial behavior—acts of kindness and helping others—can play a significant role in enhancing well-being, especially during stressful life transitions.

“Right now with everything going on in the world, we are in kind of a cornucopia of difficult times,” Cash shared. “If this works out in many different interactions and it shows that giving back to others in this way really does help to boost well-being, I think it could be a game changer for the way that we think about engaging in community.”

At the same time, there are some limitations to the research. Because the surveys are correlational, it is possible that higher well-being could lead people to more kind behavior rather than vice versa. The context of the study, conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, may also influence the findings. Because the pandemic had such a unique impact on students’ experiences and well-being, further research on different types of life transitions would help support these results.

Nonetheless, the study offers a helpful suggestion for students who may feel stressed and uncertain about starting college: focus on being kind to others.

“There’s great potential for prosociality to actually be a coping strategy to boost many aspects of well-being,” Cash said. “That’s what I’m really excited about; this communal aspect of supporting ourselves while supporting others.”

For me, during the extremely trying times I went through during my big life transition, I know that caring for others helped me endure tough moments and come out on the other side with strength and optimism.