Early November is when many students quietly skip the club meeting, say no to the dinner, and stay in to get ahead for finals. A new study of 79,246 undergraduates suggests that trade may cost your student more than it saves ( Kurdyumov et al., 2026 ).
What Did the New Study Actually Find?
A research team led by psychology professor J. Roxanne Prichard of the University of St. Thomas analyzed survey responses from 79,246 undergraduates in the United States and Canada. The data came from the Spring 2024 American College Health Association National College Health Assessment. The team built a broad measure of well-being that included flourishing, loneliness, psychological distress, and suicidality, then tested thirty predictors at the same time ( Kurdyumov et al., 2026 ).
Two factors rose to the top as positive predictors: time spent socializing, and time spent on work and family obligations. Interpersonal problems, substance use, insomnia, and screen time were strongly associated with worse well-being. The pattern held for students with and without a diagnosis of anxiety or depression.
Writing about the findings, Prichard called the strongest factor "remarkably ordinary": spending time with other people ( The Conversation, 2026 ). One caution matters here. This was a cross-sectional survey, so it shows association, not cause. It does not prove that more social time produces better well-being, and it did not measure grades.
Why Is Social Time the First Thing to Go?
Picture a Tuesday at 9 p.m. The group chat is making dinner plans. Your student stays in with the learning management system open, feeling behind and not quite starting anything. By 11 p.m., little studying has happened and no one has been seen.
Social time feels optional because no one grades it. When the calendar gets crowded, it is the easiest block to cut, and cutting it feels responsible. That instinct is understandable. It is also worth questioning.
The broader trend makes the question more pressing. An analysis of American Time Use Survey data from 2003 to 2020 found that social engagement with friends plummeted for young Americans ( Kannan and Veazie, 2023 ). Earlier work by Jean Twenge and colleagues documented less in-person social interaction with peers among U.S. adolescents in the 21st century and examined its links to loneliness ( Twenge et al., 2019 ).
Pulling back from friends before finals is not a lack of discipline. It is a prioritization decision made under pressure, usually without a plan behind it.
Why Does Belonging Matter at the End of the Semester?
Feeling connected is not a soft extra. Research on first-year students at two universities found that lower day-to-day feelings of belonging, early and across the term, predicted higher depressive symptoms at the end of the term ( Dutcher et al., 2022 ). The end of the term is exactly where your student is headed now.
The encouraging part is that connection can be built. In a randomized controlled trial of The Connection Project, a relationship-focused group program for 438 first-year and transfer students, the program fostered belonging and reduced loneliness and depressive symptoms ( Connection Project trial, PMC ). Belonging responds to structure and practice. It is not simply a personality trait.
The St. Thomas study adds one more detail many parents will recognize. Difficulty navigating relationships, including problems with friends, romantic partners, and roommates, was the biggest drag on well-being in the data ( The Conversation, 2026 ). A roommate conflict that lingers into November deserves real attention. If the fall felt heavy from the start, our post on why late September is overwhelm season explains why early struggle is so common.
How Can You Raise This Over Thanksgiving Without Hovering?
Thanksgiving break is a natural moment to ask, as long as the conversation does not feel like an audit. A few approaches tend to land well:
Ask about people, not only grades. "Who have you been eating with lately?" opens more doors than "Are you studying enough?"
Treat social time as part of the plan. One or two fixed commitments a week, such as a club meeting or a standing dinner, can sit on the calendar next to study blocks.
Reconsider standing obligations. The study linked time on work and family responsibilities with greater well-being, so a regular shift or commitment is not automatically a distraction.
Listen for relationship strain. Ongoing conflict with a roommate or close friend is worth a calm, curious question.
Know when to point toward care. Prichard is clear that mental health conditions need effective professional care, not advice to join a club. If your student seems persistently low or withdrawn, campus counseling is the right next call.
If you are weighing which kind of support fits what you are seeing, our guide to private coaching versus campus resources walks through the difference.
Why This Ties to Executive Function
Keeping friendships alive during a demanding semester is an executive function task. Planning and time management let your student build a week that holds study blocks, sleep, and people at once. Prioritization decides whether social time is cut first or protected. Task initiation is what it takes to send the text or walk into a club meeting alone. Self-monitoring helps your student notice when three weeks have passed without a real conversation. Self-regulation and cognitive flexibility help when a plan falls through or a friendship hits a rough patch. Isolation before finals is rarely about character. It is often a skill gap in building a balanced week.
How Coaching Helps
Our coaches meet your student every week virtually, with the same dedicated coach all semester, and follow up by text and email between sessions. Together they build a weekly system that treats study time, sleep, and time with people as real commitments rather than leftovers. Coaching is not therapy, and it does not replace campus counseling. It does give your student consistent structure and accountability, and it gives you weekly parent updates so you can step back from the monitoring role. If you are unsure how to bring up support, our post on how to tell your student you think they need a coach can help you start the conversation.
Read about College Success Coaching , one-on-one virtual coaching that meets your student every week. Schedule a free consultation to talk through what your student needs this semester.