Loneliness among University students

Abstract

The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of loneliness among a non-clinical group of young people, hence university students and find out what coping strategies they opt for to deal with the phenomenon. The major loneliness perspectives, the lonely prototype, the correlations of loneliness and general coping strategies were reviewed. An online self administered questionnaire was sent electronically to all full-time first year students aged 18-41 following courses in various faculties at the University of Malta. Four hundred seventy-seven students 31.86% chose to participate, of whom 333(69.81%) were females and 144 (30.18%) were males. The instruments used were the Revised University of California at Los Angeles loneliness scale (R-UCLA) designed by Russell (1996) and a questionnaire which inquired the coping strategies participants use to deal with loneliness. Results indicated that loneliness is prevalent among university students and that the most frequently cited coping strategies fall into the Category of Active Coping. No significant differences in R-UCLA mean scores were noted in terms of gender, age and faculty. The need for alternative support measures was stressed in this study.