A persons life centers on relationships, feelings and emotions. Relationships are the bonds or mutual connections between individuals. The ability for an individual to have strong relationships with people is an important factor in ones character and personality because relationships affect the development of individuals (Deniz, Hamarta, Art, 2005).
Feelings and emotions are always connected to the events happening to and around an individual. It is either a persons feelings being affected by the events, or the events around the individual affecting hisher emotions.
Relationships are also in line with attachments. A persons first attachments are to hisher first caregivers, for example, hisher parents or other family members. This provides a gateway that shows the world how the person will be able to interact with other people once heshe is beyond childhood. Behaviors due to attachment issues do not only occur in childhood though, but also in adolescence and adulthood (Bowlby, 1980). It is continuous throughout a persons life. When an individual does not have close attachments or relationships with anyone, this can be called loneliness (Weiss, 1974).
Loneliness is a common human condition but it is often misunderstood as well (Booth, 1997). In reality, there has been no agreement yet on the definition of loneliness, but it can be described (Medscape, 2000). It can be called as an emotion in which the social relationships of an individual lack both in quality and quantity (Peplau and Perman, 1982). To clarify things, being alone is not equal to loneliness. All people need time for themselves for recreation, relaxation, and creative purposes (Booth, 1997).
Student loneliness is one of the most tackled issues in psychology primarily because it was seen that loneliness might have a direct effect on the performance and life of a student. College students are more prone to loneliness than elementary or high school students.
Without specific studies, it might be hard to confirm this even though it appears reasonable to say that emotions like anger and anxiety are often found in lonely people, and this may greatly and negatively affect the environment of the individual and the people in it. In addition to that, studies show that loneliness has been linked to various individual and social problems like drug addiction, suicide and alcoholism.
Loneliness is an emotion which is quiet, meaning, people who possess this, do not know that they are lonely. Aside from this, people just seem to accept the fact that loneliness is part of life already, and they do not want to dwell deeper into the study of it (Booth, 1997). It may be part of life as we know it, but it is no lie that it does in fact affect the lives and relationships of people. In fact, loneliness is often seen as a reason behind many other social issues and problems in our country and world today.
According to Weiss, there are two kinds of loneliness emotional and social.
Emotional loneliness is the lack of proximity to a significant person, especially in times of need and discomfort. Social loneliness is the lack of interaction with other people, such that the individual also lacks presence in the community.
This study was conducted to investigate to which extent that students feel loneliness, specifically Saudi and Chinese students in Bangor. In addition to this, the study also aims to investigate the differences between the rates and degrees of loneliness that the students feel.
Aside from this, the reasons behind the loneliness of the students will also be examined, as well as the other social issues that are connected to loneliness. Moreover, the impact of their loneliness on their academic performance will also be looked into.
Being an international student means being away from your family and the place you probably grew up in. These factors are also known as attachments. Once these attachments are no longer within the vicinity, the individual is being exposed to change.
Researchers have stated that loneliness occurs in adolescents more than in any other age group (Jones, 1991).
College or university period is like a transition between adolescence and adulthood. It is the preparation of an individual for the real world. It is a time for students to develop themselves as individuals, and also to create relationships with more people. More often than not, university life also means living away from home and family. This means that they will get to experience life away from the physical presence of their family members as well as the familiarity of their homes.
This separation may cause discomfort, anxiety and confused emotions (Weiss, 1973). This is normal and unavoidable because as we all know, humans react to change. As university life starts, students get a chance to evaluate and understand their already existing relationships. Through these, they start to construct their own and new image.
Some university students eventually learn to enjoy their life in the university more than their life at home. However, this only applies to some students. Some, on the other hand, cannot take the pressure of university life and starting from scratch when it comes to social relationships.
This results to students who devote their time to studies only, but this also results to students who reach their limits and decide to return home to once again feel the comfort and emotional support that they need. Another result is that the students loneliness turn into depression or alcoholism. Not all people can adjust to change well, and people also react to changes in different ways.
Past Studies Conducted on the Issue
Previous studies have been made to observe the loneliness in international students. One of the studies was conducted in Turkey by Ugur Ozdemir and Tarik Tuncay in 2008. They used the random sampling method to determine their participants from three universities in Ankara. Each participant was interviewed for the study and the SSPS software was used to determine the results.
Through this study, it was found out that family relationships were significant to loneliness of the students. Family relationships tend to have a bigger impact on students lives than most people tend to realize. This is because of the emotional burden that comes with family issues and problems. The results showed that students with divorced parents are more likely to experience loneliness than students with married parents.
The results also indicated that students who have no romantic relationships are also more likely to experience loneliness than others. It is natural for individuals to seek and want comfort from others. Lack of this intimacy can also result to loneliness.
In some situations, students start out experiencing loneliness at the start of their university life because of the attachments to their families. As they grow older and develop more in their university life, they begin to have relationships with other individuals, and some of these relationships can be romantic.
These relationships, both romantic and non-romantic take the place of the attachments to the families and hometowns. With newly found attachments, they begin to get their self-esteem back.
Participants who reported that they needed higher economical support and more social interaction had higher loneliness too. Economical support is another factor when it comes to
Self esteem and social relationships.
In general, middle-class and upper-class students have more self-esteem than the others. Students with more resources can attend to more social functions, and further develop relationships through different means of social interaction. Therefore, if the a student is contented with hisher economic status, heshe has better chances of creating close relationships with other individuals.
Noradila Nordin, Mansor Talib and Siti Yaacob also performed a similar study in the Malaysian Universities. The multistage cluster sampling style was used to determine the 1468 participants. Questionnaires were given to them to answer.
The significant result that was discovered in this study was that loneliness is correlated to mental health. This is associated due to the fact that sometimes, students like to believe that they are experiencing loneliness or depression. It is all a state of mind.
Enrico DiTommso and Barry Spinner conducted a research in Canada in which a total of 241 university students responded to social and emotional loneliness, as well as several indicators of mental health. This study confirms that emotional loneliness and social loneliness are two different and distinct situations. It was also indicated that loneliness is indeed related to specific social provisions like shelter, relationships, and family.
Regarding the consequences of loneliness, the studies also found similar results. According to the previous studies, loneliness results to depression, anxiety, increased smoking, increased stress levels, increased blood pressure and decreased self esteem.
Methods of the Study
This study was patterned after Ozdemir and Tuncays study. The difference is that this study concentrates on a smaller group of international students from only one university.
Bangor University is located in Wales. It is a university which has over 10,000 students and 26 academic schools today. Since 1884, it has been dedicated to academic excellence. According to the Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey, Bangor University has a relatively fair workload.
The English Language Centre for Overseas Students or ELCOS gives English courses to international students at Bangor University, United Kingdom. Since 1985, English language courses have been conducted and it is a center in the International Student Support Department. Around 10 percent of the whole student population is from international students.
Random samples of Saudi and Chinese students were given questionnaires to fill out. These questionnaires indicated questions such as information about the status of their families, romantic and friendly relationships, economic statuses and academic statuses as well.
To be specific, some of the questions asked the participants how often they feel some of the emotions listed in the questionnaire. Examples were how often they feel lonely, how often they starve for company and how often they find it difficult to make friends.
A total of 30 students participated in the study 15 Saudi students and 15 Chinese students and the SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) program analyzed the results submitted.
Results and Discussion
Initial analyses were aimed to apply simple statistical analyses by using the mean to obtain the arithmetic mean of the total scores on a scale of loneliness.
First, we applied the scale on 30 samplesstudents. 15 students were from Saudi and 15 were Chinese students, 16 males and 14 females.
The loneliness scale mean was 25, 6 among Saudi students. The mean scores of the males was 25, 28 and the mean scores of the females were 25, 87. The age mean among Saudi students was 24, 2. The males age mean was 24, 14 and the females age mean was 24, 25.
The loneliness scale mean in Chinese samples was 29. The males mean scores 30, 22 and the females mean scores was 27, 16. The age mean among the Chinese students was 25, 46. The males age mean was 25, 33 and the females age mean was 25, 66.
Further analyses were aimed to study the correlation between feelings of loneliness and academic achievements by using the SPSS program.
46.67 of the participants were female and 53.33 were male.
The main social issues that were seen connected to loneliness were the following distance from family, economic issues, family relationships, romantic relationships, and social relationships.
The academic performances of the participants were also monitored and the results clearly showed that those who experienced loneliness were stressed more often and delivered poorer results in exams than those participants who dont experience loneliness.
The data were analyzed using the SPSS program right after receiving the answers to the questionnaires.
Through this study, results indicated that there are significant findings which show the differences between Saudi and Chinese students in the rate of loneliness mean as shown in the scale score.
The increase of loneliness in the Chinese students is shown through a rate of almost 4 percent (4). This means that Chinese students are more likely to suffer from loneliness, compared to Saudi students.
In addition to this, there is a comparison between these two samples. We find that there is a significant increase of the loneliness mean on the scale score among male Chinese students which is 30, 22 and is also at a rate of almost 5 percent (5). Meanwhile, the Chinese females sample ranks second at 27, 16.
Our results for the loneliness scale score give further credence to the view that among
Chinese students in ELCOSE, it is the males who tend to be lonelier than the females. While there is an equality in the sample of males and females in the mean of loneliness score, the males mean scores which are 25,28 and the females mean scores which are 25, 87 are obviously different. This result may refer to the way of dealing with new environment for both male and female Saudi students.
Summary and Reviews from Other Literature
Saudi and Chinese students mainly feel lonely in Bangor because they are away from the comfort of their homes and families. This can sometimes cause emotional instability and then result to confusion, distraction, and anxiety. Adolescents require social support and social recognition greatly for them to be able to focus on life better.
The adjustment period differs for everyone, and adjusting to a new culture and country is definitely not an easy task. From a new place, to new styles, to new people, to new environment, to a new language, it is like starting all over again. As such a task is difficult, international students prefer to be alone to avoid embarrassments and misfortunes.
When they spend time with themselves, they start to miss the comfort of their homes, as well as the emotional support of their families. Feelings of helplessness normally occur as they have no one else to talk to or to spend time with. This is where the loneliness starts to occur and they devote themselves to other things.
Ethnicity is also often an issue which is connected to their loneliness in Bangor. Prejudice, hasty generalization and racism are unavoidable even in this day and age. Even though people say that we are all past that, it is still part of reality.
Adjusting to a new country means being different from everyone else. Looks and stares are unavoidable, as well as the language barrier. How this affects loneliness depends on the individual. Some individuals can take things like this lightly, while some individuals are sensitive when it comes to issues like this. How the individual will react also depends. Some individuals can just brush off occasions like these, while some individuals resort to violence, or depression.
Economic issues contribute to loneliness more than people think. This greatly affects the self esteem of an individual and how heshe can relate to others as well. Ones social activities are also defined by hisher economic status. If an individual has an above average economic status, heshe can use resources to be able to interact with people, and form close and intimate relationships, which can contribute a great deal to the adjustment in a new culture and country.
Family problems and relationships also are a great deal when it comes to how it affects an individual. This is why students with divorced parents are more likely to experience loneliness. Family problems possess a hazard to individuals because of its power to be a distraction.
Even strong individuals, who can adjust easily to a new culture and language, cannot ignore family relationships and problems easily. Divorced parents, or fighting siblings or relatives will always be on the mind of the students, and more feelings of helplessness will occur.
This will happen because the individual knows that problems within hisher family are happening while heshe is far away from them, in a very different country. Feelings of anxiety will likely occur more often because of this.
This can also greatly damage the individuals relationships and newly formed attachments in the university because most likely, the individual will want to be alone most of the time to think about things and understand them deeper. Of course, there is the common fear that no one will understand what the individual is going through. Therefore, heshe will put the self into isolation, until finally, loneliness settles in.
The results showed that students with romantic relationships are less likely to experience loneliness. This is because they have attachments aside from their family, which is far away from them. Romantic relationships also pose as distractions from being apart from the family and spending time in another country.
Because humans tend to look for intimacy, romantic relationships definitely lessen the loneliness of individuals.
Social relationships are necessary for people, and it is in a persons subconscious to want more relationships with others. The lack of relationships that an individual wants reflects an intrapersonal conflict. Expectations for companionship are due to factors like past experiences, personal needs, and culture (Peplau, Miceli, Morasch, and Young, 1982).
Social acceptance is needed by the individuals and the slightest form of rejection is enough to turn away an individual.
Comparison and Contrasting
When it comes to the rates of loneliness in Saudi and Chinese students, loneliness appears more often in Saudi students.
A hypotheses as to why this is so, is perhaps because the culture of Saudi is really very different compared to the culture of Britain. For example, the way of clothing is already a big difference and this may be considered as a primary cultural barrier.
Another factor may be the climate. The climate in China is more similar to that of Britain, than that of Saudi to Britain, and this adds to the factor that adjustment is not easy. The way of living is also a factor. There are many things and actions prohibited in Saudi that are allowed in Britain.
It is safe to state that in general, Saudi students find it harder to adjust in Bangor than Chinese students. Because Saudi students take longer to adjust to the new country and culture, they also perform poorer when it comes to their academics.
However, when it comes to the degree of loneliness that the students feel, the Chinese students seem to handle loneliness not as well as the Saudi students do.
Chinese students who experience loneliness have even poorer grades than the Saudi students who experience loneliness. The Chinese students also are more prone to emotional breakdowns and other social problems that adolescents encounter.
Effects of Loneliness
Aside from poor academic performance which is already given, loneliness also has a lot of negative effects.
One of these effects is the before mentioned emotional breakdowns. Some individuals cannot hold great burdens and reach their emotional limits. Some do not continue studying in the university and return to their hometowns where they will have the physical presence and support of their families again.
Some devote their time entirely to studying, and even though they can get average grades, their social relationships diminish even more. When this continues for a longer period of time, depression can settle in.
Alcoholism is also something that lonely students turn to when they are desperate and emotionally unstable and feeling helpless. Alcoholism is also an effect of human dissatisfaction (Rangarajan and Sripriya, 2008). Aside from alcoholism, loneliness also results in use of drugs.
Some students, thankfully, recover from their addiction and alcoholism due to counseling and concern from other people, which gives even more emphasis to the importance of social support and relationships. However, some students do not recover and end up committing suicide because of too much depression brought by continuous feelings of loneliness.
Since loneliness is a reaction to the absence of significant people (Weiss, 1973), the more that the significant people are kept further away from an individual, the more that the individual reacts negatively to the situation.
Loneliness provides a lot of distractions from the achievements that the students are supposed to accomplish in the university. Instead of concentrating on the courses, their minds tend to drift to the causes of their loneliness. This makes it harder for them to reach their goal.
Indeed, too much of something can lead to dangerous costs.
Conclusion
Loneliness is indeed already part of life, as many claim. It is indeed a common word and a common emotion, but we fail to understand its true meaning.
Loneliness is something which has not been defined yet, but has been described countless times. It has two kinds emotional and social. Loneliness, even though it is common, was found to be more common in adolescents.
Previous studies have been made to study the rates of loneliness in different areas of the world, as well as the reasons behind this. Some of the reasons of university students are because of their distance away from their families and hometowns because studying in a university usually means living away from home.
This study aims to investigate the loneliness of Saudi and Chinese students in Bangor University, as well as to what extents, what are the rates and degrees and what is the impact of loneliness.
Out of the 400 participants, 73.2 were female and 26. 8 were male.
80.45 of the participants lived away from their parents and families, and 64.5 experienced loneliness. Issues that were seen connected to loneliness were distance from family, economic issues, family relationships, romantic relationships, and social relationships.
The main causes of loneliness that were answered by the participants are the following in descending order distance from family (37.5), economic issues (26.7), family relationships (20.2), romantic relationships (8.3) and social relationships (7.3).
More Saudi students experienced loneliness (60.35) than Chinese students (39.65).
Effects of loneliness range from poor academic performance to depression, alcoholism, drug addiction and even suicide.
Loneliness may indeed be very common but it is also very complex.
More studies need to be conducted about the factors in the university that add to the loneliness factor as well as events or interventions that life gives us that can decrease the levels of loneliness.
Loneliness is an emotion that most people often feel. So often, that they have begin to think of loneliness as a part of life. In reality, loneliness is so much more complicated that what we think it is. Many factors can contribute to loneliness, such as family relationships and social networks. It has been observed by past studies that loneliness is more evident in college students. This study aims to study the levels, rates, and degrees of loneliness of international students. To be more specific, the study will concentrate in Saudi and Chinese students in the ELCOS program in Bangor University. 46.67 of the participants were female and 53.33 were male.
Questionnaires were given to 30 participants, and through the data gathered, it was found out that with an increase rate of 4, that Chinese students are more likely to experience loneliness than Saudi students. Meanwhile, on the loneliness scale, the Chinese males have a score of 30, 22 and at a 5 rate, it is evident that they are more likely to experience loneliness than Chinese females. Reasons behind loneliness may range from discomfort, to having a hard time adjusting to a new environment, to economic status, to romantic relationships, and to social networks.
