Abstract
M.A.
New job and study opportunities were created for many people because of political changes in South Africa. This implied that many people left their homes and moved to new areas. Research indicated that 60% to 70% of first year students suffered from homesickness during their first semester at university. For some of them it was only a light experience; for others it was an intense negative experience with serious social-, academic-, and financial implications which could result in illness or even death. The role of salutogenic factors (factors that contribute to health) in the occurrence of homesickness, experienced by Afrikaans- and English speaking male and female first year students at the Rand Afrikaans Universiy, was investigated. It was found that the experience of homesickness was diminished by the salutogenic factors "sense of coherence", "self-efficacy", learned resourcefulness" and social support. These factors thus contributed to health. The factor "hardiness" did not play a salutogenic role in this study. Although the multicultural context of South Africa was not taken into account, the study should be useful in identifying students who would be prone to homesickness and illness during their first year at university.