University Counseling Center (UCC)
Responding to students with Transition Issues
Facts about transitions:
- Transitions are times of change that usually involve both loss and opportunity.
- Entering college is one of life's most demanding transitions; arguable the most significant transition since the start of kindergarten.
- College students face many challenging transitions including graduating and entering the work force.
- The changes inherent in a transition produce stress and challenge a student's coping resources.
- Students commonly experience a decline in functioning (academic, social, emotional) during transitions.
- Transition stress can be compounded by counter-productive coping mechanisms such as avoidance of stress-producing situations and people, excessive partying, and alcohol abuse.
- Transitions can pose greater problems to students who have existing psychological problems or difficult life circumstances.
- Students going through a transition may benefit from counseling to enhance their coping efforts or to prevent the onset of serious problems.
Signs that a student is having transition problems include:
- Anxiety symptoms such as nervousness, irritability, tearfulness, and sleep problems.
- Depressed mood.
- Difficulty managing responsibilities or relationships.
What You Can do:
- Covey to the student that transition stress is normal and often brings a temporary decline in performance.
- Encourage that student to use positive coping strategies to manage transition stress including: regular exercise, use of social support, a reasonable eating and sleeping regimen, and scheduling pleasurable activities.
- Refer the student to UCC if performance problems persist beyond a reasonable amount of time, or if the symptoms are acute, or if the student feels he/she could benefit by talking with someone about it.
- Assuming that the student understand the impact of transitions and is aware of the source of stress
- Minimizing or trivializing the student's feelings and reactions.
- Discounting or overlooking factors that put the student at risk of more serious problems.