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English assignment 5

English assignment

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There is a relationship between depression and loneliness in college students. In support of the statement, there have been various research studies conducted among college students by different researchers, all showing a correlation between loneliness and depression. As used in the context, loneliness refers to the distress caused by a difference between the perceived social relationships and the ideal relationships (Henninger, 2016). The leading cause of loneliness is not from the person being alone but by having less satisfying social relationships as one would desire to have. Loneliness occurs in a person when there is insufficient social contact and a lack of perceived intimate and meaningful relationships with others. Based on research conducted in 2017 on a sample of 48000 college students, 64 percent of the students reported feeling ‘lonely’ within the past period of 12 months. Depression, on the other hand, is the constant feeling of loss of interest or sadness, which reduces one’s energy in doing everyday activities (Kılınç et al., 2019).

There are various reasons which contribute to loneliness among college students resulting in depression and anxiety. One of the main reasons that contribute to loneliness among college students is finding it hard to make friends to connect with others. Friendships are based on certain factors which take much time to develop. Among the factors include common interests, values, and experiences. All the three outlined factors require time to develop and learn from others which may take as long as one year. Within the period, the student suffers loneliness due to the lack of sufficient social contact and affection that they are used to before joining college. Students enter college with very high expectations, most of which do not align with reality. As a result, the student feels disconnected from other social contacts, which causes distressing thoughts. Another essential factor that contributes to loneliness among college students is increased isolation related to social media use. Based on research, college students who spent much time on social media tend to feel disconnected socially as it displaces more personal and social experiences (Henninger, 2016).

Also, admission of college students with pre-existing mental health conditions contributes to student’s loneliness. Besides, the transition from hostels to private residences among students contributes to loneliness as they lose the social interactions among their roommates. In many campuses, first years allowed to have housing within the school where students are allowed to share rooms among themselves. The students are then shifted from the hostels after being replaced by fresh students. This results in the breakdown of the students who had already developed friendships among themselves from sharing the room. This causes loneliness among them as they try to adapt to the new environment (Danzman, 2020). At this point, the students start developing a consistent feelings of sadness, which is described as depression.

From the same research that was carried out in investigating the students who felt lonely in the last 12 months, a further assessment was conducted in evaluating whether there were students who experienced loneliness at one point or another. From the report of the findings, 69 % reported feeling ‘very sad’ while 53% of the participants who had reported feeling lonely reported that “things were hopeless.” This proves a very high correlation between loneliness and depression among college students. The two findings represent depression and anxiety resulting from extreme loneliness (Kılınç et al., 2019). The multimodal below illustrates the relationship between loneliness and depression among college students. It also demonstrates the role of social media or the internet in the relationship, as analyzed in the discussion.

Loneliness affects a college student’s academic and personal life, where in most cases, it affects academic performance adversely. In determining the effect of loneliness on the college student's academic performance, an assessment has to be done on what constitutes academic performance. This brings elements such as classwork learning objectives as well as the grading systems such as distinctions and credits. The relationship between loneliness and academic performance has to be assessed based on factors that influence academic performance, such as extracurricular activities and successful education actions such as research projects that college students usually undertake.

The majority of college students do not focus sufficiently on their academics when they are feeling lonely. This occurs due to various reasons: lack of social skills where the student feels less capable of actively participating in socialization. This affects the student's performance as he or she cannot join other students in teams or group discussions. It also affects the ability of the student to ask for guidance from fellow students due to the distressing feeling of insufficient social contact with the rest of the students. The second aspect is depression caused by loneliness which diverts the student's concentration in focusing on his or her academics. This results from the side effects of depression, such as sleep disorders where the student experiences sleep disorders that affect the ability to follow study schedules even when revising and doing homework.

Also, there is an effect on the student's self-image, which limits the student’s level of participation in class and groups, with the student being more inclined to self-reservation and refraining from classwork activities that involve other students (Dan, 2019). A student who suffers from loneliness avoids joining or participating in social activities such as extracurricular activities with other students. This is caused by the feeling of lack of self-sufficiency to fit in the groupings and teams, which consists of student ‘crews’ or students who share specific common characteristics or behaviors. This affects the student's academic performance adversely as the student does not gain maximum from classwork activities and programs such as completion of educational actions such as research projects. As a result, the student fails in meeting the learning objectives as per the semester or module’s requirements. This contributes to lower grading in the final exam, which is a measure of low academic performance.

In conclusion, there is a high correlation between loneliness and depression and proof that loneliness affects the student's academic performance..

References

Dan Ariely (2019). People Like You More Than You Think; A behavioral economist answers questions on making friends, sliding-scale pricing and buying a new car. Wall Street Journal.

Danzman Ron (2020). Why Are College Students Feeling So Lonely?

Kılınç Gülsen, Aylaz Rukuye, Güneş Gülsen & Pınar Harmancı (2019). The relationship between depression and loneliness levels of the students at the faculty of health sciences and the factors affecting them

Henninger R. William, Eshbaugh M. Elaine, Osbeck Anastasia & Madigan Christopher (2016). Perceived Social Support and Roommate Status as Predictors of College Student Loneliness