Four Traits that Build Healthy College Relationships

College is a wonderful time for self-exploration and opportunities to build lasting relationships. You’re going to face various challenges that come with maintaining those relationships such as friendship, dating and roommate issues. With each experience you learn something different about who you are. These four elements are essential to building healthy and fulfilling college relationships.

Communication

When you’re in a relationship that you value, both parties want to feel like they can express themselves freely regarding their affection. Most misunderstandings are the result of forming an opinion before knowing all of the facts, making assumptions on how the other person feels or assuming the other person understands how you feel.

Time Commitments

Completing homework assignments on time, work and extracurricular activities demand a lot of time. Spending quality time is essential to having a healthy relationship. Knowing the needs and interests of the individual will help everyone be on the same page. Prioritize your commitments and mutually agree on how you want to spend your time.

Conflict Resolution

You can’t avoid confrontation, despite your best efforts. You’re not responsible for how the other person feels, but you can control how you respond to the situation. Focusing on the issue at hand, admitting when you’re wrong (yes, this is part of being an adult), brainstorming for possible solutions and being willing to compromise are just a few things you can do to put out the fire of confrontation.

Boundaries

Stalking is now a major epidemic on college campuses and affects both sexes. Since there is a thin line between adolescents craving affection and obsessive behavior, most victims often overlook the warning signs. Some of the warnings signs might include the person having a neurotic personality, you have healthy boundaries, but the person ignores them, the person has very few personal relationships and lack of discomfort when faced with certain situations.

Having clear personal boundaries paves the way for mutual respect, emotional support and security in the relationship. Walking away from negative peer pressure and sticking to your decision requires courage. You will stay in an unhealthy relationship as long as you choose to tolerate the behavior. It’s never a good idea to do something that is against your personal beliefs or if you’re unsure of the motives of the other person. As you mature, your relationships will evolve and so will your boundaries. Every now and then take some time to reevaluate your boundaries and relationships.

Maintaining healthy relationships require good decision-making, communication, clear expectations, realistic boundaries and lots of practice. Knowing what to look for in healthy relationships allows you to have fun, learn new and exciting things about who you are and build relationships that will last a lifetime.

Do you have any college relationship tips? Let us know about them in the comment section below.