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Updated August 4, 2025 Reviewed by Davia Sills
A student’s transition to college can be a time of great pride and excitement. This period of change can be challenging for new students and family members. Students have opportunities for insight and growth. Parents and other primary caretakers can experience a newfound sense of freedom, with opportunities to reconnect with their partners and friends, engage in self-care, and pursue new interests. Bonds between college students and siblings may strengthen due to less conflict.
Students transitioning to college may feel a sense of loss when leaving friends or romantic partners and may question who they are away from their families. These losses may impact their ability to manage coursework, participate in extracurricular activities, and establish and maintain new relationships (Miller & Servaty-Seib, 2016).
Parents may experience “empty nest syndrome” and grieve the changes happening. They may feel anxious and depressed and question who they are as they navigate relationship changes with their college student, partner, other children, and aging parents (Mount & Moas, 2015). Parents may need to be mindful of their desire to be overprotective and expect overachievement in their children (Beresin, 2025).
Dr. Erin Anderson-Camenzind, Professor of Communication Studies and Director of Faculty Innovation for the 4D Experience at the University of Denver, joins in to offer practical communication strategies to ease the transition to college.
During the transition to college, how can families communicate to support one another to boost their individual and relational well-being? Drawing on strategies for enhancing opportunities for feelings of belonging (Wise, 2022), new students, parents, siblings, and other family members can try the following communication strategies:
Rituals are voluntary, patterned, and recurring communication events that family members use to honor what they find most important. Most family rituals need to be updated over time, such as during the college transition. Consider ways to adapt old rituals or create new opportunities for family togetherness, fun, and adventure as students transition to college (Braithwaite, 2022).
Ideas include:
Family rituals are most successful when all family members are involved in planning. This keeps the burden from falling on only one person. Be sure family members put the dates in their calendars and send reminders.
Students experience a newfound sense of independence and responsibility in college. Caregivers may find it difficult to move away from giving advice and enforcing rules. They may need to learn to communicate with their college student in ways that help them become more independent and recognize the changes in their relationship.
Ideas include:
College students and families are busy, and finding time to connect can be difficult. Create timelines and patterns that provide certainty around when and how families will next interact and gather. Communication planning can reduce anxiety, stress, and fear.
Ideas include:
Communicating to support student and family well-being during the transition to college is not a one-size-fits-all-families pursuit! Families will need to figure out what works for individual students, family members, communication styles, schedules, and cultures.
Ideas include:
Students will learn to succeed in college and prepare for their future by taking the initiative and managing their own tasks.
Ideas include:
The transition to college is a family communication challenge and opportunity that takes creativity and experimentation. Don’t be surprised if students, parents, and other family members need to change how they communicate. Build a check-in opportunity around any new communication strategies to see what is working. With practice, the strategies we’ve mentioned have the potential to allow family members not just to survive the transition, but to thrive as they reinforce and strengthen individual and family well-being.
References
Beresin, E. (2025). The hidden toll in overprotective parenting. Psychology Today blog. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inside-out-outside-in/202507/the-hidden-toll-of-overprotective-parenting
Braithwaite, D. O. (2022). How families can use rituals to come together. Psychology Today blog. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/communication-matters/202212/how-families-can-use-rituals-come-together
Miller, K., & Servaty-Seib, H. L. (2016). First-year students’ loss experiences and institutional belongingness in the transition to college. Journal of the First-Year Experience & Students in Transition, 28(2), 53-72. https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/fyesit/fyesit/2016/00000028/00000002/art00003
Mount, S. D., & Moas, S. (2015). Re-purposing the “empty nest.” Journal of Family Psychotherapy, 26(3), 247-252. https://doi.org/10.1080/08975353.2015.1067536
Wise, S. (2022). Design for belonging: How to build inclusion and collaboration in your communities. Ten Speed Press.
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Dawn O. Braithwaite, Ph.D., a professor of communication emerita at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, studies families and close relationships, especially step- and chosen families.
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The best way to begin something new—in love, work, and life.
Self Tests are all about you. Are you outgoing or introverted? Are you a narcissist? Does perfectionism hold you back? Find out the answers to these questions and more with Psychology Today.