The time of their lives? Developing Concepts and Methods to Understand Loneliness in Students

孤独与心理健康状况不佳、教育成就和社会流动性降低有关。它通常被认为是老年人经历的事情。然而，在大学生中，孤独是一个越来越令人担忧的问题。最近的研究发现，年轻人报告的孤独感程度很高。这似乎令人费解。大学生周围都是同龄人。他们经常和朋友住在一起，有很多社交的机会。为什么他们会感到孤独？针对这个问题，我们将发展出孤独的概念。我们将与年轻人合作，准确而敏感地展示青少年的经历。我们将在整个项目中与学生合作，将共同创造作为优先事项。我们将寻找机会减少大学生的孤独感。英国大学里有170万青少年。五分之二的学生可能符合精神疾病的标准。这越来越引起人们的关注。大学正在寻找支持学生心理健康的方法。学生们正处于发展转型时期，经历了社交网络的戏剧性变化，这带来了孤独的风险。然而，如果正确理解，孤独感可能会减少，为提高心理健康和教育成就提供一个目标。新的干预措施依赖于强大的理论框架，研究人员需要合适的工具来测量孤独。我们都可以描述孤独。新冠肺炎的封锁让许多人对孤独的体验有了新的认识。然而，对这一概念的理解是有限的，特别是在年轻人中。历史分析可能会有所帮助。我们将探索大学作为一种社会体验的想法是何时以及如何出现的。这将为理解孤独提供更广泛的社会和文化背景。我们将使敏感地测量孤独变得更容易。孤独通常是通过一个问题来评估的：“你多久感到孤独一次？”这不能确定起源或经历上的差异。它没有捕捉到孤独与社会关系、归属感或期望之间的关系。我们将调查这些联系，并开发新的工具来了解孤独的差异。我们将观察随着年轻人进入大学，社会联系是如何变化的，并询问这些变化是否会导致孤独。要做到这一点，我们将利用丰富但未得到充分利用的社交网络分析。由于这种方法没有得到充分利用，我们将开发简化的资源，帮助其他人在调查中获取关键见解。我们将开发一种新的测量工具来评估对社会关系的期望。我们将利用这一点来确定学生对社会关系的期望的差异，并询问这些期望如何影响孤独的体验。学生们经常将归属感描述为孤独的对立面。学生是否缺乏归属感？这会让人感到孤独吗？我们将测试归属感是否有助于我们理解孤独感，而不是社交网络和对社交关系的期望。我们将探索支持归属感的群体动力如何影响孤独，特别是对少数群体。社会认同感影响我们的归属感。因此，在看待归属感、社会关系和期望时，学生群体的多样性是关键。通过我们的研究，我们的目标是了解学生体验的广泛多样性，以及这是如何形成孤独体验的差异的。我们将开发一个丰富而详细的孤独理论框架。我们将测试是否存在不同类型的孤独，并研究不同的社会身份如何塑造孤独的体验。该项目将开发新的工具，以促进未来对孤独的研究。通过优先考虑共同创造，我们将解决参与的障碍，并创造资源和指导，以加快学生参与研究的速度。

Loneliness is linked to poor mental health and reduced educational achievement and social mobility. It is often thought of as something experienced by the elderly. However, loneliness is a growing concern among university students. Recent studies have found that young people report high levels of loneliness. This seems puzzling. University students are surrounded by peers. They often live with friends and have many opportunities to socialise. Why would they feel lonely?Addressing this question, we will develop the concept of loneliness. We will work with young people to represent the adolescent experience accurately and sensitively. We will work with students across the project, making co-creation a priority.We will identify opportunities to reduce loneliness in university students. There are 1.7million adolescents in UK universities. As many in 2 in 5 students may meet criteria for mental illness. Increasingly, this is a cause for concern. Universities are looking for ways to support student mental health. Students are at a developmental transition and experience dramatic changes in social networks, creating risk for loneliness. However, if properly understood, loneliness may be reduced, providing a target to boost mental health and educational achievement. New interventions depend on a strong theoretical framework and researchers need suitable tools to measure loneliness.We can all describe loneliness. The COVID-19 lockdowns gave many people new insights into the experience of loneliness. However, understanding of the concept, especially in young people, is limited. Historical analysis can help. We will explore when and how the idea of university as a social experience emerged. This will provide a broader social and cultural context to understand loneliness.We will make it easier to measure loneliness sensitively. Loneliness is often assessed using a single question: "how often do you feel lonely?" This cannot identify differences in origin or experience. It does not capture how loneliness relates to social connection, sense of belonging or expectations. We will investigate these links and develop new tools to allow differences in loneliness to be understood.We will look at how social contacts change as young people move to university and ask if these changes cause loneliness. To do this, we will make use of the rich, but under-used, Social Network Analysis. Because this approach is under-used, we will develop simplified resources to help the others capture key insights in surveys. We will develop a new measurement tool to assess expectations of social connection. We will use this to identify differences in student's expectations for social connection and ask how these expectations impact the experience of loneliness.Students often describe belonging as the opposite of loneliness. Do students lack a of sense of belonging? Does this drive loneliness? We will test whether a sense of belonging helps us understand loneliness, over and above social networks and expectations for social connection. We will explore how the group dynamics that support a sense of belonging, especially for minority groups, may influence loneliness.Social identity influences our sense of belonging. Therefore, in looking at belonging, as well as social connection and expectations, the diversity of the student population is key. Across our research we aim to understand the broad diversity of student experience and how this shapes differences in the experience of loneliness.We will develop a rich and detailed theoretical framework for loneliness. We will test whether there are different types of loneliness and examine how diverse social identities shape the experience of loneliness. The project will develop new tools to facilitate future research into loneliness. Through prioritising co-creation, we will address barriers to engagement and create resources and guidance to accelerate student involvement in research.