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 envi...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-01-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.733867/full |
| _version_ | 1828133201639374848 |
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| author | Manuel D. S. Hopp Marion Händel Svenja Bedenlier Michaela Glaeser-Zikuda Rudolf Kammerl Bärbel Kopp Albert Ziegler |
| author_facet | Manuel D. S. Hopp Marion Händel Svenja Bedenlier Michaela Glaeser-Zikuda Rudolf Kammerl Bärbel Kopp Albert Ziegler |
| author_sort | Manuel D. S. Hopp |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | 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. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T17:16:12Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c54086e09680449a9a5d973c72c80b89 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T17:16:12Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-c54086e09680449a9a5d973c72c80b892022-12-22T04:12:41ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782022-01-011210.3389/fpsyg.2021.733867733867The Structure of Social Networks and Its Link to Higher Education Students’ Socio-Emotional Loneliness During COVID-19Manuel D. S. Hopp0Marion Händel1Svenja Bedenlier2Michaela Glaeser-Zikuda3Rudolf Kammerl4Bärbel Kopp5Albert Ziegler6Department of Psychology, University of Erlangen Nuremberg, Erlangen, GermanyDepartment of Psychology, University of Erlangen Nuremberg, Erlangen, GermanyDepartment of Education, University of Erlangen Nuremberg, Erlangen, GermanyDepartment of Education, University of Erlangen Nuremberg, Erlangen, GermanyDepartment of Education, University of Erlangen Nuremberg, Erlangen, GermanyDepartment of Education, University of Erlangen Nuremberg, Erlangen, GermanyDepartment of Psychology, University of Erlangen Nuremberg, Erlangen, GermanyLonely 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.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.733867/fullCOVID-19 pandemiclonelinesssocial networkinterconnectednessnetwork densitynetwork homogeneity |
| spellingShingle | Manuel D. S. Hopp Marion Händel Svenja Bedenlier Michaela Glaeser-Zikuda Rudolf Kammerl Bärbel Kopp Albert Ziegler The Structure of Social Networks and Its Link to Higher Education Students’ Socio-Emotional Loneliness During COVID-19 Frontiers in Psychology COVID-19 pandemic loneliness social network interconnectedness network density network homogeneity |
| title | The Structure of Social Networks and Its Link to Higher Education Students’ Socio-Emotional Loneliness During COVID-19 |
| title_full | The Structure of Social Networks and Its Link to Higher Education Students’ Socio-Emotional Loneliness During COVID-19 |
| title_fullStr | The Structure of Social Networks and Its Link to Higher Education Students’ Socio-Emotional Loneliness During COVID-19 |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Structure of Social Networks and Its Link to Higher Education Students’ Socio-Emotional Loneliness During COVID-19 |
| title_short | The Structure of Social Networks and Its Link to Higher Education Students’ Socio-Emotional Loneliness During COVID-19 |
| title_sort | structure of social networks and its link to higher education students socio emotional loneliness during covid 19 |
| topic | COVID-19 pandemic loneliness social network interconnectedness network density network homogeneity |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.733867/full |
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