“It depends,” says Belhaven University guidance counselor, Christa Williams. “What are you sheltering them from?”.
It’s no secret that colleges and universities bring people of many different backgrounds together. Some people come into college ready to continue an already started road to independence. However, for many, college is a young adult’s first experience with freedom. With these new freedoms, some students can struggle with mental health (depression, anxiety etc.,) and temptations to gravitate towards what might be considered to be bad things (excessive drinking, drugs, etc.). Bestcolleges.com reports that 1 in 4 college age students struggle with a mental illness brought about by their transition to college. How many of these mentally unstable students are previously-sheltered young adults?
Research is being done on Belhaven University’s Jackson campus to determine the overall positive or damaging effects being raised sheltered has on a college student. Belhaven’s very own Christa Williams explained that the answer is not going to be easy to find, because sheltering comes in many forms and different extremes. Williams says she as a counselor has seen young adults from all backgrounds struggle in college. Everyone can have mental struggles.
An online survey asked current college students to explain ways they’ve seen sheltering affect their sheltered peers. One response from an anonymous source wrote, “They have a hard time adapting to the new environment and quickly get overwhelmed. They also have a hard time breaking ties with family.” Responders to the survey were asked to grade how much more they believed a sheltered young adult would struggle in college than a person who was not sheltered the response average was 73 percent, meaning people taking the survey, most not considering themselves sheltered, believed that sheltered young adults were 73 percent more likely to struggle with their new-found freedom in college. The results from the survey indicate that there is an overall concern about sheltered young adults.
Rebekah Veldhorst, 20, sat down in an interview to discuss why many assume sheltered students struggle more than others. “I think it’s just because there’s a lot of stuff they didn’t know very much, and when they get to college, they’re away from their families so there’s a lot of influx of new information. Just they, they don’t know what to do with that, so, just people assume they go wild.” Veldhorst, a sophomore at Belhaven says she has seen sheltered students befriend “bad influences” but does not personally know someone who lost control of themselves due to sheltering.
Ashley Farris, 21, a junior, gave a strong “No” when asked if she was sheltered growing up. Farris believes the idea that sheltered young adults do struggle more when transitioning into college. “I think if you’re not prepared for the world, you don’t know what to expect from the world. You’re not going to be successful immediately. I think you’re gonna have to have a lot more time to adjust than someone who wasn’t sheltered.”
Between the interviews and survey, it appears that a sheltered young adult is at a higher risk of getting into trouble in college than a person who was not sheltered. A very strict home can produce a nervous, unprepared for the world young adult. Would you agree?
Research for Yourself:
https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-negative-effects-of-being-sheltered-as-a-child
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/fear-sheltered-child
For More Blog Posts Like This:
com210news 