The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 41, No. 2 & Volume 42, No. 1 - 65

Experiences of Students in Triples

Gender Differences
Research on gender differences in the effects
of living in triples has produced mixed results.
According to Aiello et al. (1981), women felt
more dissatisfaction with tripling and felt
more crowded than did men. The researchers
found that college women spent more time in
their rooms and expressed a greater desire for
social involvement with their roommates than
did college men, which could create more
social tension for women in triples. However,
Mullen and Felleman (1990) found that men
demonstrated more adverse reactions to
crowding than did women; female-to-female
interpersonal distances are often smaller than
male-to-male distances, suggesting that men
might experience more negative effects in
triples because they require larger interpersonal distances than do women.

Roommate Isolation
Some research explored the formation of
coalitions within triples (Aiello et al., 1981;
Baum et al., 1979; Reddy et al., 1981). Baum
et al. (1979) posited that the individual residents of triples might experience crowding
effects differently, and two residents might
form a coalition (or dyad), thus isolating the
third resident. The third person in a triple, the
isolate, tends to report greater perceptions of
crowding, less control, and less satisfaction
than do dyads and residents of doubles (Aiello
et al., 1981; Baum et al., 1979; Reddy et al.,
1981). Moreover, these researchers found no
difference in the experience of dyads and residents of doubles. This supports the belief that
the experience of isolates accounts for most of
the difference in the experience of residents
in doubles and triples.

A recent study by Clark et al. (2012) examined whether or not the historically documented negative effects of tripling can be
found with today's student population. The
researchers assessed the experiences of 141
residential ﬁrst-year students and found no
difference in depression, anxiety, and stress
levels of students in doubles and triples and
no difference in the psychological well-being
of men and women.
Overall, research on triples has found that
crowded living environments might cause
psychological and social distress, but this research was conducted three or four decades
ago. Additional research is needed to understand if the negative effects associated with
tripling can be found among today's college
students. The researchers of the current study
also did not ﬁnd any research on triples that
included educational gains and satisfaction
with the residential experience as outcome
measures. Given that one of the primary purposes of residence halls is to promote student
learning and social integration (Strange &
Banning, 2001), these additional measures
are needed to understand how tripling impacts
a residential system's ability to achieve its
mission. The present study contributes to the
literature by assessing the residential experience and the self-reported educational gains
of college students in triples.

RESEARCH APPROACH
Institutional Context
The researchers conducted the study at a large
public research institution in the Midwest, hereafter referred to as Midwest University (MU).
A low residential attrition rate of 50%, record
enrollment of ﬁrst-year students, diminished
65

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 41, No. 2 & Volume 42, No. 1

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 41, No. 2 & Volume 42, No. 1