SOCIOEMOTIONAL BEHAVIOR AT THE END OF COLLEGE LIFE

This study examined daily patterns of social interaction before the an ticipated social departure marked by the end of residential college li fe. Sixty-six college students, 19 of whom faced social and/or geograp hical relocation associated with college graduation, kept daily accoun ts of their social activities for 21 consecutive days. Compared with s tudents not facing a social departure, graduating seniors reported gre ater emotional involvement with close friends relative to acquaintance s. Seniors did not differ from other students in their relative balanc e of close friends and acquaintances within each day or in amount of t ime spent with each type of social partner per day. These findings sug gest that people's construals of future social opportunities - or lack thereof - influence their emotional investments in social contact, an d support Carstensen's socioemotional selectivity theory.