College is often the first time many students gain independence away from home and a recent loss of freedom by moving back with family has some San Jose State students feeling unmotivated and distracted by the transition.
Sociology junior Evelyn Castro said when she moved back home with her family, she became busy with not just her coursework, but also with supporting them.
“One of the things that at first was hard was [my family] didn’t know how it was to be living with a college student,” Castro said in a phone call.
Students worldwide have grieved university experiences after leaving campuses only to return to unsupportive environments. This results in feeling like a failure being back with family, according to a Sept. 3, 2020 Mental Health America article.
Castro said she was expected to help with chores around the house and take care of her siblings, but sometimes those responsibilities conflicted with her class times and homework assignments.
“[My family] will be like ‘Can you help me clean this?’ ‘Can you help me do this?’ ” Castro said. “I'm like, ‘Oh, well, you see, I have class right now,’ or ‘I have an assignment do’ or ‘Have to do something for school.’ ”
Castro is the first in her family to go to a four-year university and said she misses the encouragement from other students who understand the workload.
Students have been removed from social support systems because of the pandemic, causing mental health concerns and impacting their academic performance, according to a University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry webpage.
“While many students may be happy to reconnect with family again, some have returned to abusive households, others to an empty fridge, and others to no home at all,” according to the webpage.
Bryan Do, an industrial technology senior said he has felt a lack of motivation since moving back home and being away from the SJSU campus.
“[Campus] just gives me that atmosphere of like ‘I just need to do this work.’” Do said, “But when I'm at home, I'm more lazy and I have to push myself really hard to like actually get the things done.”
Like Castro and Do, justice studies junior Andrea Chavez said she’s also missed the positive influence the campus had on her college experience before the pandemic.
“I used to go to the [Martin Luther King Jr.] library a lot,” Chavez said in a phone interview. “It was an environment you wanted to do your homework in and now I feel like I don’t have that environment.”
Chavez was living off campus before she moved back into her parent’s home when school went online.
One of the biggest obstacles she has faced has been losing the independence she gained living away from her parents.
“It was pretty upsetting because of everything I did to be independent,” Chavez said. “Now I have to go back home and go backwards.”
Students such as Castro who move back to their hometowns can feel like their personal growth and progress that occurred in college is reversed, according to an April 16, 2020 Stanford University report.
“Loss of independence or motivation, countless distractions and family disputes are some of the downsides to these new circumstances,” the report stated.
Like Chavez, business administration junior Kimberly Victoriano also moved from her San Jose apartment and relocated to her family’s Santa Ana home in Southern California.
While she has obligations at home including caring for her young nieces, Victoriano said she doesn’t feel distracted from her school work.
“I'm helping [my family] by watching my nieces and taking them out more,” Victoriano said in a phone interview. “I feel like it’s OK [studying from home] because I still get my privacy.”
Victoriano said she has been living with her family for months because of traveling restrictions, but said she would like to return to San Jose.
“If it weren’t for travel circumstances I definitely would be back at San Jose,” Victoriano said.
Victoriano said she still hopes to go back to her apartment because she applied to SJSU to experience life in a large city.
“The only reason why I went so far so away was because I wanted to see life outside my hometown,” Victoriano said. “Here I see the same old people and I just wanted to see new faces and get more experience living alone.”
