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

Abstract

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.