The Structure of Social Networks and Its Link to Higher Education Students’ Socio-Emotional Loneliness During COVID-19

Lonely students typically underperform academically. According to several studies, the COVID-19 pandemic is an important risk factor for increases in loneliness, as the contact restrictions and the switch to mainly online classes potentially burden the students. The previously familiar academic environment (campus), as well as the exchange with peers and lecturers on site, were no longer made available. In our cross-sectional study, we examine factors that could potentially counteract the development of higher education student loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic from a social network perspective. During the semester, N = 283 students from across all institutional faculties of a German comprehensive university took part in an online survey. We surveyed their social and emotional experiences of loneliness, their self-reported digital information-sharing behavior, and their current egocentric networks. Here, we distinguished between close online contacts (i.e., mainly online exchanges) and close offline contacts (i.e., mainly in-person face-to-face exchanges). In addition, we derived the interconnectedness (i.e., the densities of the egocentric networks) and heterogeneity (operationalized with the entropy) of students’ contacts. To obtain the latter, we used a novel two-step method combining t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) and cluster analysis. We explored the associations of the aforementioned predictors (i.e., information-sharing behavior, number of online and offline contacts, as well as interconnectedness and heterogeneity of the close contacts network) on social and emotional loneliness separately using two hierarchical multiple linear regression models. Our results suggest that social loneliness is strongly related to digital information-sharing behavior and the network structure of close contacts. In particular, high information-sharing behavior, high number of close contacts (whether offline or online), a highly interconnected network, and a homogeneous structure of close contacts were associated with low social loneliness. Emotional loneliness, on the other hand, was mainly related to network homogeneity, in the sense that students with homogeneous close contacts networks experienced low emotional loneliness. Overall, our study highlights the central role of students’ close social network on feelings of loneliness in the context of COVID-19 restrictions. Limitations and implications are discussed.

Friend or foe? The effects of harmonious and obsessive passion on entrepreneurs’ well-being, strain and social loneliness

Purpose Passion is considered a critical aspect of entrepreneurship. According to the dualistic model of passion (DMP), entrepreneurs’ passion for their work can be harmonious or obsessive, leading to different personal and work outcomes. Drawing on DMP and the self-determination theory, this paper investigates these two types of passion for work and their effects on entrepreneurs’ subjective well-being (SWB), psychological strain and social loneliness.Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a self-administered online survey with 312 entrepreneurs in Turkey. The authors selected the sample using purposive sampling and referrals through snowballing via associations, university start-up organizations, entrepreneur lists and personal networks. The data are analyzed using multiple regression analysis.Findings The results show that harmonious passion is negatively related to strain, while obsessive passion is positively related to both strain and social loneliness. Furthermore, both types of passion are associated with higher SWB. Finally, age moderates the relationship between obsessive passion and SWB.Practical implications The findings draw attention to another dark side to entrepreneurship and a useful perspective to raise awareness that entrepreneurs may think positively of obsessive passion and ignore the negative consequences.Originality/value This study contributes to the literature by showing that both positive and negative consequences of passion may co-exist based on the entrepreneurs’ self-perceptions. It also contributes to the very scarce research in non-western, emerging contexts in entrepreneurial passion research and constitutes the first study conducted on this topic in Turkey.

GAMBARAN KONDISI KESEPIAN MAHASISWA YANG HANYA MENGAMBIL MATA KULIAH SKRIPSI PROGRAM PENDIDIKAN S-1 UNIVERSITAS PADJADJARAN

Kesepian adalah kondisi yang tidak menyenangkan, subjektif, dan terjadi saat interaksi jika adanya kebutuhan dalam hubungan sosial yang tidak terpenuhi. Kesepian terbagi ke dalam dua jenis, yaitu kesepian sosial (terjadi karena hubungan pertemanan) dan kesepian emosional (terjadi karena hubungan keluarga dan hubungan percintaan). Mahasiswa Universitas Padjadjaran yang hanya mengambil mata kuliah skripsi mengalami perubahan interaksi sosial, seperti jarang bertemu dan perbedaan topik pembicaraan dengan teman yang sudah lulus maupun belum lulus, merasa tertekan oleh keluarga, dan perubahan dalam hubungan percintaan. Oleh karena itu, peneliti tertarik untuk melihat gambaran empiris mengenai kondisi kesepian yang dilihat dari kondisi kesepian sosial dan kondisi kesepian emosional pada mahasiswa tersebut. Penelitian dilakukan terhadap 330 mahasiswa Universitas Padjadjaran dengan karakteristik angkatan 2013-2015 yang hanya mengambil mata kuliah skripsi menggunakan teknik proporsional stratified random sampling. Peneliti menggunakan rancangan non- eksperimental dengan metode penelitian deskriptif dan pendekatan kuantitatif dengan menyebarkan kuesioner SELSA (Social Loneliness Scale For Adults) secara daring. Hasil penelitian memperlihatkan mayoritas mahasiswa memiliki kondisi kesepian (n = 272), kesepian sosial (n = 271), dan kesepian emosional (n = 233) pada tingkat yang rendah. Hal ini disebabkan oleh kesendirian dan sudah dapat mengatasi kesepian yang dirasakan saat sedang sendirian.

Mediating Effect of WhatsApp Addiction Between Social Loneliness and Preference for Online Social Interaction: A Cross-cultural Study

The present study aims to explore the relationship between social loneliness and online interaction through WhatsApp addiction among a sample of Indian and Fijian respondents. Based on the responses of 202 Indian and 73 Fijian respondents, the present research study validated the mediating role of WhatsApp addiction, revealing that social loneliness increased the possibility of preferring to interact online through increased WhatsApp addiction. The empirical results showed that the underlying mechanism of social loneliness might indirectly influence consumers’ preference for online social interaction (POSI). The study further assessed the moderating role of culture in the association between social loneliness and POSI. Findings of the moderated mediation analysis demonstrated that, the association between loneliness and preference to socialize online differed, based on the identified cultural differences between Indian and Fijian groups.

Psychometrics of Persian version of the 11 items De Jong Gierveld loneliness scale among an Iranian older adults population

Background Older adults duo to circumstances of aging such as relationship losses, medical morbidities, and functional declines, are prone to social isolation and loneliness more than any other age group. Furthermore, with The recent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to quarantine, the possibility of feelings of loneliness, especially in older adults, became an important nursing priority. Therefore, it is important to quickly identify loneliness and respond appropriately to prevent, reduce, or treat it. The aim of this study was to translate the De Jong Gierveld loneliness scale into Persian for older adults. Methods The sample was 400 adults aged 65 and older with a mean age of 71.32 (SD= ± 6.09) years. Recruitment and data collection was done via online methods. The original scale was translated into Persian using the World Health Organization (WHO) protocol of forward-backward translation technique. Face validity and content validity; was followed by exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Lastly, reliability was assessed using the Average Inter-Item Correlation, Cronbach’s alpha, and McDonald’s Omega. Results The results showed that the Persian version of the loneliness scale had two factors namely social loneliness (5 items) and emotional loneliness (3 items) and the combined score explained 45.66% of the total variance of this scale. In addition, all goodness of fit indices confirmed a two factors model fit and all of the reliability indices were excellent. Conclusions The Persian version of the loneliness scale is useful and suitable for detecting social loneliness and emotional loneliness in older Iranian adults.

All Social Media Is Not Created Equal: Instagram, Finsta, and Loneliness

Research on the relationships between social media use and loneliness has produced mixed findings, in part because people use social media in different ways. Finsta is a private Instagram account followed only by a small group of the user’s friends and is considered to be a more authentic form of social media. The purpose of the present study was to examine the differential associations of Instagram and Finsta use with social and emotional loneliness and to investigate off-line engagement as a potential mediator of these associations. With data from an online survey given to <em>N</em> = 330 emerging adults, a series of hierarchical linear regressions showed that Instagram use negatively predicted and Finsta use positively predicted social loneliness, whereas neither were associated with emotional loneliness. Furthermore, whereas Finsta use was not associated with off-line social engagement with friends (OSE-friend), Instagram use was positively associated with this variable. In addition, results showed that off-line social support with friends partially mediated the relationship between Instagram use and social loneliness. The findings imply that all social media are not created equal; even within the same platform (Instagram), differential associations were found with social loneliness depending on the type of account used.

Loneliness in older parents: marital transitions, family and social connections, and separate bedrooms for sleep

Objectives This research innovatively analyzed the marital transitions (i.e., divorce and widowhood) of older Taiwanese parents, their sleep problems and spousal specific characteristics (i.e., separate bedrooms for sleep and marital relationships) as well as their social and family connections, all of which were simultaneously reflected in emotional and social domains of loneliness. Methods Data are from 1645 older parents from Northern Taiwan. Loneliness was assessed by a De Jong-Gierveld short scale with emotional and social domains. We conducted multivariate logistic regression to examine the associations of marital transitions and family/social connections regarding sleep problems and psychological well-being with loneliness in social and emotional domains. Besides sleep problems and individual socioeconomic status, we included data on couples’ sleeping arrangements and marital relationships. Results Social loneliness was significantly associated with being divorced (AOR = 1.80, 95% CI 1.13–2.86) and living alone (AOR = 1.50, 95% CI 1.02–2.23). In contrast, strong family cohesion and frequent weekly contact with friends were associated with lower social loneliness. Married parents who slept in separate bedrooms were more likely than bed-sharing couples to feel emotional and social loneliness, despite adjusting for their sleep problems. Furthermore, satisfactory spousal relationships significantly decreased the magnitude of associations in the social domain. Discussion Our findings support significant associations between loneliness in later life and major marital transitions, family and social connections and sleep problems which differ in social and emotional domains. Independent of relationship satisfaction, separate bedrooms relate to higher risks of emotional loneliness in older adults.

Experience of Loneliness and Social Support during COVID-19 Confinement: A Nation-wide self-Assessment among Undergraduates of Nepal

In the account of the social nature of human beings, the given difficult circumstance due to COVID-19 may call upon social loneliness, emotional loneliness, and moreover, lack of perceived social support. We aim to elucidate by assessing the level of loneliness and the level of social support perceived by college students amidst the COVID-19 lockdown. A web-based cross-sectional survey was conducted among 970 Nepalese undergraduate students. Responses were extracted, cleaned, and analyzed with the help of R-studio (version 1.2.5033). Descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation described participants’ demographic characteristics. Karl Pearson’s Correlation analysis and significant test of correlation for loneliness, social support, and their various subscales, respectively were significant at 0.1%, 1%, and 5% level of significance. The mean age of respondents was 22.2 years (SD =2.74). Significant correlations were observed among social loneliness, emotional loneliness, overall loneliness (social loneliness and emotional loneliness combined), social family support, social friends support, social significant others support, and total social support (that is to say, all the social support subscales). The study reported that a decrease in social support leads to an increase in loneliness. Likewise, a decrease in social support from family, friends, and from significant others can increase emotional and overall loneliness.

Loneliness and Its Association With Social Media Use During the COVID-19 Outbreak

Social distancing rules during the COVID-19 pandemic changed social interaction for many and increased the risk of loneliness in the general population. Social media use has been ambiguously related to loneliness, and associations may differ by age. The study aimed to examine loneliness and its association with social media use within different age groups during the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted in Norway, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia during April/May 2020, and 3,810 participants aged 18 years or above were recruited. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine associations between social media use and social and emotional loneliness within separate age groups. Emotional loneliness was higher among young adults and among those who used social media several times daily. Adjusting by sociodemographic variables, using more types of social media was associated with lower social loneliness among the oldest participants, and with higher emotional loneliness among the youngest participants. Among middle-aged participants, using social media more frequently was associated with lower social loneliness. We found that the associations between social media use and loneliness varied by age. Older people’s engagement on social media may be a resource to reduce loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic. We observed higher levels of loneliness among high-frequent social media users of younger age.