Social Support in College Life

島田直子（保健管理センター 学生相談室 人間系 助教）

Naoko Shimada（Student Counseling Services, Health Center Faculty of Human Sciences）
It’s been about a couple of months since a newschool year started. Many students have probably
been experiencing at least some life changes, which
may make you feel stressed or tired. One of theimportant life changes is among social network orsocial support. Social support or social connectedness
seems to be important for mental wellness acrosscultures.
When you hear the term “social support,” whatwould you imagine? Some people may say friends,and others may say teachers and parents. Thinking
about your social support and making some efforts
to improve the social support system may help you
feel better or succeed in your campus life. Here, I will
introduce different types of social support, Emotional
support, Informational support, Instrumental
support, and Companion support (ACA, 2012).
An Emotional Supporter will provide you suchthings as empathy, caring, understanding, acceptance,and concern. Theses emotional supports will help
you feel confident and valued. This kind of help
may be also obtainable from your college mates orcommunity people as well as people living far fromTsukuba through phone conversation or emailcommunication.
An Informational Supporter will assist you withknowledge and information, for example, connect you
appropriate resources and teach necessary skills. In
order to get this kind of assistance, you may want
to go see your professors or senior students (先輩)or may want to visit some of the various on-campus
services, including Academic Service Offices (支援室), Division of Student Affairs (学生生活課), General
Consultation Office (総合相談窓口), Health Center(保健管理センター) and International Student Center(留学生センター).
An Instrumental Supporter will provide you
concrete assistance to do things or get things done,18

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especially stressful tasks. You may ask someone for
help, including such people as tutors, classmates, lab
mates, and club or committee friends. Helping eachother or collaborating in a group work or asking help
for your parents, for example, when moving into a
new apartment or dormitory will be an instrumental
support.
A Companion Supporter will give you feelingsof connectedness by enjoying something together
specifically recreational activities. Possible activities
include having fun with your friends, eating out orgoing shopping with your friends, and go drinking if
you are legally an adult.
By referring the above four categories, you could
make a list of your social support. When you feelstressed out, lonely, overwhelmed, sad, helpless, try
to think about your social connection or support.
You may realize you have more resources than you
were aware of, which may make you feel better. If
you find that you may not have enough social support
in a specific category, just go find one! When you are
not sure where to go, come visit Student Plaza 3F(総合相談窓口) or Student Counseling Services inthe Health Center (保健管理センター学生相談室)!
Counselors will help you explore your resources.
参考文献
American Counseling Association. Retrieved fromhttp://www.counseling.org on April 11, 2012.
新学期が始まって２か月半が過ぎましたが，みなさんいかがお過ごしですか？人間関係など生活環境の変化を感じている人も多いと思います。
今回はソーシャルサポートのお話です。一口にソーシャルサポートといってもいくつか種類があると言われています。この機会にみなさんのソーシャルサポートについて振り返ってみませんか？
英語の苦手な方も，ぜひチャレンジしてみてくださいね。