Not getting along with your roommate can have an adverse effects on your health, according to a research done by Ohio State psychology professor Brad Schmidt.A study of 143 undergraduate students showed when a person was not liked or did not get along with his or her roommate, that person’s emotional and physical health suffered.”If you’re living with someone who’s sending you signals that you’re not that great of a person you may eventually react by buying into it,” Schmidt said.The students who participated in the study showed higher levels of depression and illness and lower levels of self esteem when they were not liked by their roommates. However, for students who keep themselves physically fit, adverse social relations did not have the same negative emotional effects on them as they did on less physically fit people, Schmidt added.”The general notion is how much social approval a person gets dictates changes in their emotional functions,” Schmidt said.The more social approval a person receives, the higher their self esteem. The less social approval they receive, the lower their self esteem.Steve Kremer, Director of Residence Life, said that his department has done studies on this topic in the past and keeps it in mind when placing roommates together.”We realize that getting roommate requests right is important,” said Kremer.Susannah Pell, Hall Director for Norton-Scott, said a resident’s reaction to not getting along with a roommate may also depend on his or her social connection on the floor.”I think if an individual does not have a social network in the hall the fact they do not get along with their roommate can be obvious. If a person has a social network in the hall it (the effect) is not as clear but it still has an effect,” said Pell.At OSU, keeping the peace between roommates, either requested or assigned, starts with a roommate agreement. Talking with resident advisors and hall directors about problems is also encouraged but if all else fails, the student may simply fill out a room change request form, Kremer said .”People change rooms all the time. Sometimes we think we’ve made it too easy,” he said. Roommates not getting along is a common occurrence, said Pell.”It really depends, but I’d say that it’s pretty common that there’s at least one person in a quad that doesn’t get along with another person,” Pell said.The study in which students filled out questionnaires on two separate occasions showed the adverse effects worsened with time. Over a three-week period, symptoms of low self esteem, depression and illness increased in students who were not liked by their roommates.Schmidt co-authored the study with Thomas Joiner of Florida State University and Kathleen Vohs of Dartmouth College.