Phillips, R. orcid.org/0000-0003-4630-4555, Seaborne, K., Goldsmith, A. et al. (9 more authors) (2022) Student loneliness through the pandemic : how, why and where? The Geographical Journal, 188 (2). pp. 277-293. ISSN 0016-7398
Abstract
Loneliness has emerged as a problem for individuals and society. A group whose loneliness has recently grown in severity and visibility is students in higher education. Complementing media reports and surveys of students’ lockdown loneliness, this paper presents qualitative research findings on students loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic. It explores the how, why and where of student loneliness through research co-produced with undergraduate and postgraduate students. Student-researchers investigated loneliness as a function of relationships and interactions through self-interviews and peer interviews (n = 46) and through objects, chosen by participants to represent their experiences of lockdown. This research led to three conclusions, each with a geographical focus. First, as the spaces in which students live and study were fragmented, interactions and relationships were disrupted. Second, students struggled to put down roots in their places of study. Without a sense of belonging—to the city and institution where they studied, and the neighbourhood and accommodation where they lived—they were more likely to experience loneliness. Third, many students were unable to progress through life transitions associated with late adolescence including leaving home, learning social skills, forming sexual relationships and emerging into adulthood. Those facing bigger changes such as bereavement struggled to process these events and spoke of feeling ‘neither here nor there’—in limbo. But students displayed resilience, finding ways to cope with and mitigate their loneliness. Their coping strategies speak to the efforts of policymakers and practitioners—including those in universities, government, health and wellbeing services, and accommodation services—who are seeking ways to tackle students' (and other peoples') loneliness.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 The Authors. The Geographical Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). |
Keywords: | COVID-19; friendship; isolation; loneliness; relationships; student |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Geography (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 05 May 2022 10:53 |
Last Modified: | 05 May 2022 10:53 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/geoj.12438 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:186402 |
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Licence: CC-BY-NC 4.0