Relationships and Loneliness – an exploratory study

Abstract

Background: Loneliness is a common problem in relationships. The purpose of the study was to find out if there is a relation between loneliness and people in romantic relationship. Methods: Convenient sampling was used to collect data in the age range of 18 to 25 years. Data was collected from 111 people out of which 37 were in a romantic relationship, 37 had been in a romantic relationship at least once in their lives and 37 had never ever been in a romantic relationship. Tool used to measure loneliness was UCLA loneliness scale. Results: The data was not significant. It was found that the degree of loneliness was lowest in people who were in a romantic relationship and highest in the people had never been in a romantic relationship when the survey was conducted. Conclusion:The results show that the difference between the mean reported loneliness for 3 groups is not significant. That is being in relationship, or not being in relationship romantically has no significant impact on feelings of loneliness reported in young adults.