Stress and Family Relationships among College Students 1 Krista

This study examined the relationship between stress and the family relationships of college students. One hundred thirty 18-23 year old students at Robert Morris University were surveyed on their levels of school stress and their family relationships, as well as demographic questions. Findings indicated there was a significant negative correlation between stress and family relationships among freshmen, but not among upperclassmen. This may be due to a stronger family connection among freshmen that decays each year in college as students learn to depend less on family. Higher GPA’s were also associated with lower levels of stress. However, GPA and family relationships were not correlated. This suggests that the stress and GPA relationship may be due to an unmeasured factor.