The time of their lives? Developing Concepts and Methods to Understand Loneliness in Students
Lead Research Organisation:
King's College London
Department Name: Psychology
Abstract
Loneliness is linked to poor mental health and reduced educational achievement and social mobility. It is often thought of as something experienced by the elderly. However, loneliness is a growing concern among university students. Recent studies have found that young people report high levels of loneliness. This seems puzzling. University students are surrounded by peers. They often live with friends and have many opportunities to socialise. Why would they feel lonely?
Addressing this question, we will develop the concept of loneliness. We will work with young people to represent the adolescent experience accurately and sensitively. We will work with students across the project, making co-creation a priority.
We will identify opportunities to reduce loneliness in university students. There are 1.7million adolescents in UK universities. As many in 2 in 5 students may meet criteria for mental illness. Increasingly, this is a cause for concern. Universities are looking for ways to support student mental health. Students are at a developmental transition and experience dramatic changes in social networks, creating risk for loneliness. However, if properly understood, loneliness may be reduced, providing a target to boost mental health and educational achievement. New interventions depend on a strong theoretical framework and researchers need suitable tools to measure loneliness.
We can all describe loneliness. The COVID-19 lockdowns gave many people new insights into the experience of loneliness. However, understanding of the concept, especially in young people, is limited. Historical analysis can help. We will explore when and how the idea of university as a social experience emerged. This will provide a broader social and cultural context to understand loneliness.
We will make it easier to measure loneliness sensitively. Loneliness is often assessed using a single question: "how often do you feel lonely?" This cannot identify differences in origin or experience. It does not capture how loneliness relates to social connection, sense of belonging or expectations. We will investigate these links and develop new tools to allow differences in loneliness to be understood.
We will look at how social contacts change as young people move to university and ask if these changes cause loneliness. To do this, we will make use of the rich, but under-used, Social Network Analysis. Because this approach is under-used, we will develop simplified resources to help the others capture key insights in surveys. We will develop a new measurement tool to assess expectations of social connection. We will use this to identify differences in student's expectations for social connection and ask how these expectations impact the experience of loneliness.
Students often describe belonging as the opposite of loneliness. Do students lack a of sense of belonging? Does this drive loneliness? We will test whether a sense of belonging helps us understand loneliness, over and above social networks and expectations for social connection. We will explore how the group dynamics that support a sense of belonging, especially for minority groups, may influence loneliness.
Social identity influences our sense of belonging. Therefore, in looking at belonging, as well as social connection and expectations, the diversity of the student population is key. Across our research we aim to understand the broad diversity of student experience and how this shapes differences in the experience of loneliness.
We will develop a rich and detailed theoretical framework for loneliness. We will test whether there are different types of loneliness and examine how diverse social identities shape the experience of loneliness. The project will develop new tools to facilitate future research into loneliness. Through prioritising co-creation, we will address barriers to engagement and create resources and guidance to accelerate student involvement in research.
Addressing this question, we will develop the concept of loneliness. We will work with young people to represent the adolescent experience accurately and sensitively. We will work with students across the project, making co-creation a priority.
We will identify opportunities to reduce loneliness in university students. There are 1.7million adolescents in UK universities. As many in 2 in 5 students may meet criteria for mental illness. Increasingly, this is a cause for concern. Universities are looking for ways to support student mental health. Students are at a developmental transition and experience dramatic changes in social networks, creating risk for loneliness. However, if properly understood, loneliness may be reduced, providing a target to boost mental health and educational achievement. New interventions depend on a strong theoretical framework and researchers need suitable tools to measure loneliness.
We can all describe loneliness. The COVID-19 lockdowns gave many people new insights into the experience of loneliness. However, understanding of the concept, especially in young people, is limited. Historical analysis can help. We will explore when and how the idea of university as a social experience emerged. This will provide a broader social and cultural context to understand loneliness.
We will make it easier to measure loneliness sensitively. Loneliness is often assessed using a single question: "how often do you feel lonely?" This cannot identify differences in origin or experience. It does not capture how loneliness relates to social connection, sense of belonging or expectations. We will investigate these links and develop new tools to allow differences in loneliness to be understood.
We will look at how social contacts change as young people move to university and ask if these changes cause loneliness. To do this, we will make use of the rich, but under-used, Social Network Analysis. Because this approach is under-used, we will develop simplified resources to help the others capture key insights in surveys. We will develop a new measurement tool to assess expectations of social connection. We will use this to identify differences in student's expectations for social connection and ask how these expectations impact the experience of loneliness.
Students often describe belonging as the opposite of loneliness. Do students lack a of sense of belonging? Does this drive loneliness? We will test whether a sense of belonging helps us understand loneliness, over and above social networks and expectations for social connection. We will explore how the group dynamics that support a sense of belonging, especially for minority groups, may influence loneliness.
Social identity influences our sense of belonging. Therefore, in looking at belonging, as well as social connection and expectations, the diversity of the student population is key. Across our research we aim to understand the broad diversity of student experience and how this shapes differences in the experience of loneliness.
We will develop a rich and detailed theoretical framework for loneliness. We will test whether there are different types of loneliness and examine how diverse social identities shape the experience of loneliness. The project will develop new tools to facilitate future research into loneliness. Through prioritising co-creation, we will address barriers to engagement and create resources and guidance to accelerate student involvement in research.
Technical Summary
To develop a theoretical framework for loneliness in students and the methodological approaches necessary to study loneliness in young people sensitively, the project will investigate divergent origins of loneliness using several methodological approaches.
(1) Egocentric social network data, relating to current and previous social networks, will be collected, and analysed to assess how changes in social network through the transition to university impact loneliness.
(2) Co-creation activities with students will be used to help identify proxy social network measures that may provide indicators of important facets of social networks, for use in future research.
(3) We will develop a new methodological tool to assess student expectation for social connection, allowing the gap between expectation and experience to be captured. We will use co-creation approaches, with focus groups followed by exploratory factor analysis to refine a new scale.
(4) We will employ historical research, reviewing archive resources from three universities, the NUS, student newspapers and publications from the Student Health Officers' Association, to understand how the idea of university as a social experience evolved.
(5) We will use in-depth qualitative work, employing focus groups, triangulated with student reviews of themes and co-creation in thematic analysis, to investigate how social identity influences belonging and loneliness.
(6) We will run a large-scale longitudinal survey and use Linear Mixed models, a powerful regression-based technique, allowing us to account for non-independence arising from the longitudinal design and hierarchical data, to test the relative roles of expectation and experience of social connection, change in social networks and sense of belonging, in predicting loneliness for students.
(7) We will use co-creation approaches across the project and capture insights and lessons from this engagement.
(1) Egocentric social network data, relating to current and previous social networks, will be collected, and analysed to assess how changes in social network through the transition to university impact loneliness.
(2) Co-creation activities with students will be used to help identify proxy social network measures that may provide indicators of important facets of social networks, for use in future research.
(3) We will develop a new methodological tool to assess student expectation for social connection, allowing the gap between expectation and experience to be captured. We will use co-creation approaches, with focus groups followed by exploratory factor analysis to refine a new scale.
(4) We will employ historical research, reviewing archive resources from three universities, the NUS, student newspapers and publications from the Student Health Officers' Association, to understand how the idea of university as a social experience evolved.
(5) We will use in-depth qualitative work, employing focus groups, triangulated with student reviews of themes and co-creation in thematic analysis, to investigate how social identity influences belonging and loneliness.
(6) We will run a large-scale longitudinal survey and use Linear Mixed models, a powerful regression-based technique, allowing us to account for non-independence arising from the longitudinal design and hierarchical data, to test the relative roles of expectation and experience of social connection, change in social networks and sense of belonging, in predicting loneliness for students.
(7) We will use co-creation approaches across the project and capture insights and lessons from this engagement.
