The Relationships among Communicative Competence, Roommate Rapport, Loneliness and Persistence in College.

A study investigated the influence of interpersonal variables, such as communicative competence, loneliness, and roommate rapport, upon persistence in college. The study includes self-reports as well as reports of roommates' behaviors. Subjects were 200 freshman students (out of a total of 350) who participated in several sections of a freshman-level orientation seminar at a small, private university in the Northeast. Results indicated significant multiple relationships between roommate rapport and self-reports, and reports of roommates' communicative competence. Significant multiple correlations were also found between loneliness and self-reports and reports of roommates' communicative competence. Significant relationships were observed for loneliness and roommate rapport and university satisfaction. Those students who persisted as opposed to those who left the institution differed on levels of social confirmation and loneliness. (Author/MG)