Correlates of college students' loneliness

The Social Reality of Feeling Lonely

Loneliness has been defined as a dissatisfaction with one's social relationships. It is not clear, however, if loneliness is associated with having fewer close friends or fewer friends in general. Furthermore, this loneliness may be expressed either as a lack of relationships or as a lack of closeness in relationships. Finally, the lack of intimacy may be perceived only by the lonely person and may not reflect how the relationship appears to the partner. A total of 22 female and 20 male freshmen filled out a loneliness scale and social network questionnaire. Friends of the female subjects were also asked to fill out the social network questionnaire. Lonely persons listed as many best friends as nonlonely persons and were equally likely to have this choice reciprocated. Lonely subjects, however, did perceive a significantly lower level of intimacy in these relationship than did nonlonely subjects, and their "best friends" validated this perception. Lonely subjects did not differ in the number of friends in general that they listed, but their "friends" were significantly less likely to return this friendship choice.

Loneliness, self-disclosure, and ICQ ("I seek you") use

This study investigated the relationships between self-disclosure in ICQ ("I seek you") chat, level of loneliness, and ICQ usage. The Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale and the Revised Self-Disclosure Scale (RSDS) were administered to a multistaged stratified random sample of 576 college students. The results indicate that loneliness is not related to level of ICQ use, but inversely related to valence, accuracy, and the amount dimensions of self-disclosure in ICQ chat, and that ICQ usage is significantly related to control of depth and intent of disclosure. Specifically, it was found that the lonelier the student, the more dishonest, more negative, and the less revealing was the quality of the self-disclosure in their ICQ interaction. Conversely, appropriate, honest, positive, and accurate self-disclosure might lead to decreased loneliness when one feels understood, accepted, and cared about on ICQ. More important, as intimate relationships are based on high degrees of depth and intent of self-disclosure, heavy users of ICQ are usually open, personal, and consciously aware of what they are disclosing.

Loneliness of chronically ill adults and their spouses

This comparative descriptive study was designed to determine if there was a significant difference in loneliness between 80 chronically ill adults and their spouses [N = 160] and to determine whether a significant relationship existed between loneliness and selected characteristics in the two groups. Chronically ill adults were purposively selected from several sources and represented a variety of illnesses. Loneliness of both groups was assessed using a single dichotomous item from the Oars Multidimensional Functional Assessment Questionnaire (1975). Data on selected characteristics were collected through four instruments: subscales from the Oars, Disability Classification Index, Social Role Rating Scale, and Life Satisfaction Index-Z Scale. Wilcoxon 2-Sample Test revealed no significant difference in loneliness between groups. For both groups, women were more lonely than men and this difference was significant for the ill group (p less than .001). The highest correlation between loneliness and sociodemographic characteristics was need for financial assistance for ill respondents and inability to afford luxuries for spouses; between lonely and disease-related characteristics, it was the number of chronic illnesses for ill and disability of the ill partner for spouses; between lonely and sociological characteristics, it was decrease in the homemaker role for ill and decrease in the leisure role for spouses. For both groups, loneliness was significantly related to lower life satisfaction and unrelated to mental health. Findings indicate that chronically ill adults and spouses are similar in frequency of self-reported loneliness. Differences in characteristics associated with loneliness found between the two groups suggest a need for different approaches in nursing interventions for ill adults and spouses.

Empathy and the experiencing of loneliness

The subjects were 39 students of psychology (5 men and 34 women). Empathy was measured by the modified Mehrabian and Epstein emotional empathy scale and loneliness by open-ended questions. Scores on empathy correlated slightly and positively with loneliness which was experienced positively and correlated negatively with loneliness when experienced negatively. Objective loneliness is not necessarily subjective loneliness. When evaluating loneliness the subjective personal view has the greatest value. The data are too limited to allow broader generalizations.

Loneliness and use of six mass media among college students

Research on loneliness and a theoretically plausible correlate of loneliness which has not been investigated is the relationship between loneliness and mass media consumption. 493 college students completed the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale and reported the frequency of their using television, radio, movies, books, newspapers, and magazines. In general, virtually no relationship appeared between frequency of media use and level of loneliness.