Correlates of College Students' Loneliness

Loneliness has been linked with excessive drug and alcohol use, overeating, suicide, and other harmful means of coping (1, 3, 4 ) . Several writers have idenrified social isolation (absence of social network) and emotional isolarion (lack of fulfilling relationships) as primary determinants of loneliness (1, 3 ) . College students away from home, in a new community, are likely to be especially vulnerable ( 2 ) . The present study sought to idenrify the relationships demographic, social, and interpersonal adjustment variables have with subjective ratings of loneliness and time spent alone among college students. It was predicted that loneliness would correlare with indices of emotional and social isolation and increased reliance on coping. A 30-item questionnaire employing rating scales was administered to 179 undergraduate psychology students (82 males and 97 females) at the University of Nebraska. The subjects' mean age was 19.4 yr. (SD = 2.6 yr. ) and 67 % were freshmen. Analysis of the 39-variable correlation matrix showed ratings of loneliness were positively correlated ( p 4 .05) with time alone ( r = .18), time spent studying alone ( T = .15) , number of older siblings ( T = .19), and were negatively correlated with dating frequency ( r = -.17). These results provide minimal support for the predicted association with social and emotional indicators of isolation. Time spent alone was also significantly associated with having employment ( r = .18) and study time alone ( r = .26). As was predicted significant negative relationships were found between alone rime and time spent with friends ( r = .23), dating frequency ( r = . 2 4 ) , party attendance ( r = -.17), number of close friends ( T = -.19), frequency of discussing personal problems with others ( r = .29), time spent studying with friends ( T = -.30), and number of younger siblings ( r = -.16). Men spent more time alone than women ( r = -.17). These data suggest thar, while there was some overlap between ratings of loneliness and time spent alone the measures of alone time had a more consistent association with social and emotional isolation variables than did the subjective racings of loneliness. Perhaps self-reported ratings of loneliness are more likely to elicit emotional defensiveness compared to estimates of time spent alone. The number of casual friends, social club membership, attendance at religious activities imply the presence of a social network but were nonsignificantly related to loneliness or to time spent alone. Contrary to expcctarions, such things as watching TV and using drugs and alcohol were not significantly related to loneliness or time spent alone.