Loneliness, Social Isolation, and Achievement Goals Among University Students During COVID-19

Abstract

The present study aimed to find out the relationship between loneliness, social isolation, and achievement goals among university students’ during COVID-19. The role of demographic variable i.e., age, gender, family system, institutional affiliation, student, and parental education etc. and group differences was also studied. Sample of 200 university students (71 males and 129 females) was selected from different universities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi using convenient sampling technique. The age of the sample range from 19 to 40 years (M= 31.10, SD= .46) and their education level ranged from BS to PhD. UCLA Loneliness (Russell, 1996), Lubben Social Network Scale-Revised (2000) and Achievement Goals Questionnaire-Revised (Eliot & Murayama, 2008) were used. Reliabilities of all scales and subscales were good, in acceptable range. Correlation between loneliness and achievement goals was negative. Increase in loneliness would decrease the achievement goals of university students. Loneliness was positively related with mastery avoidance and performance avoidance. Achievement goals were positively related with its subscales, moreover subscales were also significantly positively related with each other. LSNS was positively related with its subscales, moreover subscales were also positively related with each other. Significant difference was found between age, family system, institutional affiliation, student education and parental education. Mean differences across family system were observed, students who lived in nuclear family had scored higher on achievement goals as compared to students lived in combined family. With reference to institutional affiliation, students of private sector have higher level of loneliness as compared to students from public sector. However, students from public universities were more likely to perform and avoid performance than students from private universities. Study illustrated that students who had BS level of education reported significant higher level of mastery approach and mastery avoidance as compared to students had higher level of education (i.e., MSc and above).