Zheng, Kangning;
Johnson, Sonia;
Jarvis, Ruby;
Victor, Christina;
Barreto, Manuela;
Qualter, Pamela;
Pitman, Alexandra;
(2023)
The experience of loneliness among international students participating in the BBC Loneliness Experiment: Thematic analysis of qualitative survey data.
Current Research in Behavioral Sciences
, 4
, Article 100113. 10.1016/j.crbeha.2023.100113.
(In press).
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Abstract
Loneliness is associated with poor mental and physical health in the general population. It is thought to be prevalent among international students, but few studies have investigated this. To capture what loneliness means in the everyday lives of international students we analysed data from 521 international students aged 16–40 years who participated online in the 2018 British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Loneliness Experiment. Using the approach of thematic analysis of free‐text responses to a question probing the perceived meaning of loneliness, we identified six main themes: (1) Negative psychological and social aspects of loneliness; (2) The distressing experience of being alone; (3) Disrupted ability to make meaningful connections; (4) Sense of entrapment in a state of loneliness; (5) Awareness of others’ stigmatizing perceptions of oneself as lonely; (6) Perceptions of positive aspects of loneliness. These findings identified a range of negative social and psychological dimensions of loneliness in international students in relation to their well-being, emotional health, and social functioning, hampering the benefits to be gained from their overseas study. Higher education teaching staff, pastoral staff, and mental health professionals need to be more aware of the prevalence and impacts of loneliness and should tackle it in culturally appropriate ways.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | The experience of loneliness among international students participating in the BBC Loneliness Experiment: Thematic analysis of qualitative survey data |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.crbeha.2023.100113 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crbeha.2023.100113 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Keywords: | Loneliness, International students, Qualitative, Survey, Mental health, Wellbeing |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Division of Psychiatry UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Division of Psychiatry > Epidemiology and Applied Clinical Research |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10171920 |
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