Tendencies of Loneliness and Well-being among General Population

Description

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19469743

Deepthi Balla (Independent Researcher, Psychology, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh)

The present study aims at identifying the prevalence of loneliness, alleviation strategies to ward off it, along with wellbeing. The sample was selected using a purposive sampling technique. Around 240 individuals of different nationalities have been given an online survey form to fill. The researcher, using the discussion method with psychology students and elders, has prepared a checklist for collecting these experiences. Revised UCLA (R-UCLA) by Russell, Peplau, and Cutrona (1980) with 20 items with a reliability of 0.96 and Well-Being Scale (Singh, Junnarkar, & Kaur, 2016) with 28 items were utilized. Participants were asked to provide their ways of dealing with loneliness (termed lay strategies for the conceptual framework). Results showed that 23.75 % experiencing moderate degree of loneliness and 73.33 percent are experiencing a moderately high degree of loneliness. For loneliness, only the locality variable was found to be significant contributor (r= 0.183**; F=4.485; p=0.004). For well-being, Age, Qualification and marital status were also significant. These details are disclosed in the relevant section. Qualitative analysis showed that in the sample, loneliness is expressed by the individuals who attribute it to their immediate family members and physical problems. It is noted that loneliness is alarmingly prevalent in today’s society, thus identifying the reasons reported by the individuals as per their perceptions is imperative.