Social and emotional loneliness among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic: the predictive role of coping behaviours, social support, and personal resilience

Abstract

ObjectiveTo determine the influence of coping behaviors, resilience, and social support on students' emotional and social loneliness during the COVID‐19 pandemic.Design and MethodsA cross‐sectional research design was used to gather data from 303 college students from the Central Philippines using four standardized scales through an online survey.FindingsLoneliness among students was high during the coronavirus pandemic. Resilience, coping behaviors, and social support were identified as protective factors against loneliness.Practice ImplicationsInterventions directed toward increasing resilience, social support, and coping behaviors may help decrease emotional and social loneliness caused by the mandatory lockdown during the COVID‐19 pandemic.

Loneliness Among The Students Of Faculty Of Science And Arts During The COVID-19

“…The result of the first hypothesis is consistent, to some extent, with the study conducted by Al-Fiqi & Aboel-Fetouh (2020) which showed that students had suffered from loneliness moderately. This result is different from the result of the study carried out by Labrague et al, (2020), which revealed a high level of loneliness among the students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the researcher thinks that this difference might be attributed to the nature of the samples.…”

“…The current research is consistent with previous studies such as Wilczewski et al, (2021), Labrague et al, (2020), and Al-Fiqi & Aboel-Fetouh (2020) which focused on loneliness among university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The most significant characteristic of this research is its difference in terms of the sample because the previous studies' samples were from Poland, Swiss, the Philippines, and Egypt.…”

“…All the previous studies such as Al-Fiqi & Aboel-Fetouh (2020), Labrague et al, (2020), andWilczewski et al, (2021) which focused on loneliness among university students during the COVID-19 pandemic did not investigate the differences in loneliness due to marital status, and this also marks the significance of the current research. Groarke et al, (2020) findings revealed that a higher level of social support such as being married is a preservable factor.…”

“…None of the previous studies such as Al-Fiqi & Aboel-Fetouh (2020), Labrague et al, (2020), andWilczewski et al, (2021), which investigated loneliness among university students during the COVID-19 pandemic, had examined variation in loneliness according to gender, and this fact raises the significance of the current research. These results are consistent with the previous studies such as Bu et al, (2020a), Li, & Wang (2020, Bu et al, (2020b), Rodríguez-Rey et al, (2020) which focused on loneliness among the population in general, and their results revealed that females had a high risk of being lonely during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

“…Another study was carried out by Labrague et al, (2020) among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sample size was (303) students from the Central Philippines, and a cross-sectional research design was adopted.…”