Biopsychosocial Health: Examining the Relationships Between Loneliness, Social Connection, and College Students’ Health
Khalid Yusuf
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07/27/2021
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27
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The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between college students’ physical health, mental health, and social experiences. Current literature examining social participation and quality of life showed that social connection is important for psychological, emotional, and physical wellbeing. Assessing psychosocial factors such as loneliness, social connection, social support, and participation when working with persons with mental and physical health disorders could help health care practitioners understand more of their clients’ experiences.
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- [00:00:01.580]Hello. My name is Khalid Yusuf
- [00:00:03.590]and I'm a senior studying psychology and gerontology,
- [00:00:07.230]and today I'll be going over my research,
- [00:00:09.847]"Examining the Relationships Between Loneliness,
- [00:00:12.820]Social Connection, and College Student's Health."
- [00:00:16.270]First to start with the background literature.
- [00:00:18.660]Over the past couple of years,
- [00:00:20.280]there has been a surge of interest in the connections
- [00:00:22.690]between: physical health, mental health
- [00:00:25.101]and social experiences,
- [00:00:26.930]such as interpersonal relationships and loneliness,
- [00:00:30.730]and current literature shows
- [00:00:31.970]that social connection is important
- [00:00:34.270]for psychological, emotional, and physical wellbeing.
- [00:00:37.910]Suggesting that social disconnection is a serious issue,
- [00:00:42.035]and the effect of loneliness on physical and mental health
- [00:00:45.590]has been studied and showed that loneliness is associated
- [00:00:49.250]with negative physical and mental health effects.
- [00:00:52.250]As a result, it is one of the hidden causes
- [00:00:54.680]of hospitalization, because it puts a person
- [00:00:57.470]at risk for these negative health outcomes.
- [00:01:00.510]And it also suggests that loneliness could be used as
- [00:01:04.410]a target for improving overall health recovery.
- [00:01:08.920]The current study
- [00:01:10.070]aimed to examine the relationships between:
- [00:01:12.510]college student's physical health, mental health,
- [00:01:15.230]and different measures of social experience.
- [00:01:17.870]It was hypothesized that there would be
- [00:01:19.880]a positive association
- [00:01:21.710]between physical health, mental health,
- [00:01:24.410]social connection, perceived social support,
- [00:01:26.860]social participation,
- [00:01:28.160]and it was also expected to find a negative association
- [00:01:32.480]between physical health, mental health and loneliness.
- [00:01:36.780]Now this research uses data collected from
- [00:01:40.500]a larger study
- [00:01:42.620]that started the precruitment June, 2021,
- [00:01:45.410]examining bio-psycho-social contributions to physical
- [00:01:48.920]and mental health.
- [00:01:51.010]This data examined physical and mental health loneliness,
- [00:01:55.230]social connection, social support, and social participation,
- [00:01:59.840]which was collected from 74 participants
- [00:02:02.370]via online self report surveys.
- [00:02:05.420]Descriptive statistics, and bivariate correlations
- [00:02:08.780]were analyzed in order to test the research hypothesis.
- [00:02:14.780]Now, as for the results,
- [00:02:17.260]loneliness was shown to be significantly correlated with
- [00:02:20.650]mental health measures and expected directions,
- [00:02:23.750]showing that with the increase
- [00:02:25.460]of negative mental health symptoms,
- [00:02:27.570]there was an increase in loneliness.
- [00:02:30.250]This is consistent with previous findings
- [00:02:32.403]that studied these relationships
- [00:02:34.520]and found that those who experienced
- [00:02:37.170]loneliness are also more likely to have a variety
- [00:02:40.410]of negative mental health consequences,
- [00:02:43.520]which suggest that loneliness again,
- [00:02:45.560]could be used as a promising target
- [00:02:47.640]for preventing poor mental health.
- [00:02:50.640]Furthermore, perceived social support
- [00:02:53.110]had expected correlations
- [00:02:54.830]and show that perceived social support
- [00:02:57.060]was strongly correlated with mental health measures.
- [00:03:00.610]With the increase in social support,
- [00:03:03.020]there were increases in positive mental health symptoms.
- [00:03:06.780]This is consistent with previous findings
- [00:03:09.050]that showed that a low degree of perceived social support
- [00:03:12.252]was linked to a greater risk
- [00:03:14.320]for common mental health diseases.
- [00:03:17.190]These findings suggest that social support
- [00:03:20.021]can be used to better improve the mental health
- [00:03:23.070]a person's experiencing these negative symptoms.
- [00:03:26.750]Finally, contrary to the hypothesis,
- [00:03:29.620]social participation had the opposite effect
- [00:03:33.100]of the expected correlations.
- [00:03:35.470]Social participation was negatively correlated with
- [00:03:38.760]psychological wellbeing, psychological health,
- [00:03:41.600]and perceived social support.
- [00:03:43.540]It was also positively correlated with
- [00:03:45.620]attenuating negative psychotic symptoms.
- [00:03:48.170]These unexpected results
- [00:03:49.630]could be due to a couple of reasons.
- [00:03:51.850]Although the scale used measures
- [00:03:55.010]the severity of participation restrictions,
- [00:03:58.300]it may not accurately capture
- [00:03:59.850]all aspects of social participation.
- [00:04:02.380]Furthermore, these results may suggest
- [00:04:04.600]that the effects of social participation
- [00:04:07.460]and the specific role it plays
- [00:04:09.460]in physical and mental health
- [00:04:11.350]is not yet fully understood
- [00:04:13.200]and could be a point for future work.
- [00:04:17.060]Now, to go on to describe the demographics
- [00:04:21.450]of data summary,
- [00:04:23.000]participants ranged from age 18 to 32
- [00:04:27.150]and the majority of the participants
- [00:04:29.360]were female and white,
- [00:04:31.840]and descriptive data summary was described below
- [00:04:35.300]and includes range, mean standard deviation,
- [00:04:38.175]skewness and kurtosis.
- [00:04:41.750]Now, the current study did have some limitations
- [00:04:45.040]that could be improved on in future research.
- [00:04:47.970]Firstly, the study utilized self-report measures
- [00:04:50.790]for all the variables.
- [00:04:52.290]This means that the results are subject
- [00:04:54.640]to the biases of the participants.
- [00:04:57.240]To ensure the accuracy of results,
- [00:04:59.470]psychometric properties of measures were assessed
- [00:05:02.460]to aid the ability of the participant
- [00:05:04.490]to accurately assess themselves.
- [00:05:07.100]Another limitation was the small sample size
- [00:05:10.450]of 74 participants,
- [00:05:12.320]which can lead to issues with internal and external validity
- [00:05:16.210]and higher chances of reporting insignificant results.
- [00:05:20.810]Lastly,
- [00:05:22.360]is important to note that this university sample
- [00:05:25.320]might not generalize to the larger population
- [00:05:28.740]and these are all points for future direction
- [00:05:30.840]to increase sample size and gather on longitudinal data.
- [00:05:36.170]And although this study did not measure
- [00:05:38.640]specific COVID-19 questionnaires,
- [00:05:40.749]there is no doubt that social connection and loneliness
- [00:05:44.060]are likely becoming a prevalent issue across the lifespan.
- [00:05:47.820]There is clear evidence linking these measures to a risk
- [00:05:50.580]for mental and physical health consequences,
- [00:05:53.110]therefore, clinicians and institutions that work with those
- [00:05:56.150]experiencing negative symptoms
- [00:05:58.230]should be increasingly concerned
- [00:06:00.140]about social experiences,
- [00:06:01.635]and overall health and its consequences.
- [00:06:05.330]Now, I would like to lastly go on to acknowledge
- [00:06:09.160]and thank my faculty mentor
- [00:06:11.360]Dr. William Spaulding and my graduate mentor,
- [00:06:14.320]Rebecca Wolfe for their compassionate support and guidance
- [00:06:16.840]throughout this project.
- [00:06:17.930]And for helping me develop as a student.
- [00:06:20.200]I would also like to thank UNL McNair Scholars Program
- [00:06:23.840]for funding and assistance while completing this project
- [00:06:27.250]and for surrounding me
- [00:06:28.500]with an encouraging cohort of scholars.
- [00:06:31.030]Thank you for your time.
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