Loneliness in College Students

Introduction: Loneliness among college students is quite prevalent. Students in their early years experience a transition period when entering university. Conditions with a new living environment, a new social environment, adjustments to peer relations, and a new academic atmosphere, support the occurrence of loneliness conditions in students. This study aims to understand loneliness in college student Methods: Literature Review
Results: College students have a greater risk of experiencing loneliness. The impact of loneliness on students is also quite significant, both physically and psychologically. Loneliness can affect mental conditions of depression, anxiety, suicide, and low self-esteem which will ultimately lead to a decrease in quality of life. The physical effects of loneliness can also result in prolonged feelings of fatigue, limited physical activity, cardiovascular disorders, and unhealthy lifestyles which ultimately also have an impact on decreasing quality of life. Intervention and prevention to overcome loneliness are urgently needed, such as improving social skills, overcoming and adapting maladaptive social cognition, increasing social support, mindfulness interventions, and improving friendships. Conclusions: Prevention programs for loneliness are very important to implement. Such an intervention could help reduce the burden of the disease in students’ future professional lives.

Keywords: Loneliness, Well-Being, College Students

Introductions

Loneliness is a phenomenon that occurs in human life. For each individual, loneliness can be experienced differently at different times and under different circumstances. Loneliness involves social isolation. Public Health England defines loneliness as an individual's personal experience, a subjective sense of lacking connection and contact with social interactions, and feeling unwanted or needed. The prevalence of loneliness is significant among university students around the world due to environmental changes such as culture shock and during a pandemic[1],[2]. Loneliness is a painful condition[3].

Loneliness is a subjective experience that is not supported by an objective situation, towards unmet needs namely the need for intimacy and/or social involvement[4]. Loneliness is different from solitude. Solitude is considered a pleasurable and even desirable situation that can promote creative experiences or provide an opportunity to take a break from stressful realities[5],[6].

Reviews

Loneliness Prevalence in College Students

Loneliness is defined as the discrepancy between a person's current relationships and the relationships they desire. More than 50 million people (about 26% of Americans) feel lonely. The prevalence of loneliness in other studies ranges from 15-30% of individuals. Students contribute greatly to feelings of loneliness because 75% of new students need adjustment, especially during the first 2 weeks. In the United Kingdom, around 5% of individuals between the ages of 25-44 years old reported feeling lonely most of the day and those under 25 and older than 65 reported higher levels. The prevalence of loneliness tends to depict a U-shaped distribution, with individuals under the age of 25 and those over 65 reporting the highest level of loneliness compared to other age groups. Since many college students are under the age of 25, these findings suggest that loneliness may be a significant problem during this student period. In 2015, almost 4% of the Dutch population aged 15 years and over experienced loneliness. Student Health Check (SHC) in 2015-2016 showed that 16% of participating students experienced loneliness problems[7].

Research on children and adolescents showed that between 3% - 22% of children and adolescents experienced prolonged periods of loneliness. Additionally, evidence suggests that loneliness may be experienced more acutely and painfully by young adults than by other age groups. In early adulthood, people often leave their homes – mostly for the first time – to pursue higher education. Physical separation from home and change toward greater independence signify an important developmental transition that can be accompanied by loneliness. Starting university often involves relocating to a new place, sometimes abroad, a situational change that further increases the risk of loneliness as people are separated not only from intimate relationships, but also from established social networks and support systems.

Loneliness among students occurs among domestic and international students of all levels of education (both undergraduate and postgraduate). The results of a recent survey from the National College Health Assessment, 64% of the sample felt very lonely, with a higher percentage of women (i.e. 71%) compared to men (56%) and undergraduates (68%) compared to college students. Survey results in Turkey show that 60% of respondents feel lonely, with higher levels being reported by first-year students. A survey of more than 1,000 UK students showed that 34% of respondents, aged 18-24, felt lonely quite often or very often to almost constantly[8]

Factors Affecting Loneliness

College students have a greater risk of experiencing loneliness. The transition to college is a significant change for early adulthood. The changes include the need to interact with other people and efforts to establish new relationships, living in a different location with new and foreign people, dealing with academics that are potentially more difficult, and being far from their previous homes and family and friends. Fifty percent of students also experience stress levels above the average. Such transitions can have a negative impact on college students. If students do not develop efficient coping mechanisms, greater levels of loneliness may arise as a result. Although a person can experience feelings of loneliness at any time, such feelings of isolation tend to be more prominent among those who do not easily become part of social networks. Students who have a dysfunctional attitude have the potential to experience loneliness. Students tend to experience loneliness when they believe that it will be difficult to find a partner, experience anxiety in interactions with other people, think that other people consider them unwanted, or have negative expectations and perspectives.

Individuals who experience loneliness may not have secure attachments with other people, may not have strong social networks or poor support, or individual characteristics that interfere with the development of satisfying relationships. Lonely students also experience difficulties in deciphering information so they cannot respond appropriately when interacting with other people, which also causes an increased feeling of loneliness. The risk factor for loneliness in college students is not much different from adults. Loneliness is associated with several issues, such as fear of intimacy, low self-esteem, or even having past experiences with loneliness due to dysfunctional family life or unsatisfying relationships with others. Among children, loneliness is related to feelings of lack of support from mothers, fathers, and classmates and a history of being bullied predicts significantly higher levels of loneliness among adolescents[9]. Another factor related to loneliness is low academic achievement[10].

The loneliness that occurs at universities also occurs because stress over academic demands, shifting

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