Loneliness, social support, and interpersonal trust among Chinese university students: Basis for educational implications and recommendations

This study conducted a survey of 2,546 Chinese university students to explore the relationships between loneliness, social support, and interpersonal trust, and to analyze the differences in these variables across demographic factors such as gender, academic discipline, and geographic origin.The findings revealed that female students reported significantly higher levels of social support compared to male students, and humanities students had higher social support levels than science students.In terms of interpersonal trust, science students scored slightly higher than humanities students.Additionally, students from rural areas exhibited significantly higher levels of loneliness compared to their urban counterparts, and their levels of social support were lower.Students from intact families reported lower levels of loneliness than those from non-intact families, and they also demonstrated higher levels of social support and interpersonal trust.The study further showed that both social support and interpersonal trust were significantly negatively correlated with loneliness, indicating that increasing social support and enhancing interpersonal trust can reduce feelings of loneliness.This finding underscores the importance of fostering social support and interpersonal trust in preventing and mitigating loneliness among university students.Moreover, the study found a positive correlation between social support and interpersonal trust, suggesting that these two factors may complement each other in maintaining mental health.Based on these results, the study offers specific educational recommendations aimed at improving social support and interpersonal trust among different groups of university students through targeted interventions and support strategies, thereby reducing their loneliness and promoting their psychological well-being.