Loneliness and psychological distress in everyday life among Latinx college students

Abstract

Objective: Changes in surroundings and social relationships may heighten feelings of loneliness, suggesting the need to measure as a state. This study tested whether loneliness fluctuates within and across days and the resultant associations with psychological distress. Further it tested familism as a moderator as endorsing this cultural value may buffer the negative effects of state loneliness. Participants: Participants (n = 220) were Latinx undergraduate students. Methods: Students reported their loneliness levels and psychological distress twice a day for two weeks using an ecological momentary assessment approach. Results: Results showed that experiencing a higher than usual level of loneliness predicted greater sadness, stress, and anxiety at both the moment-to-moment and day-to-day level. Familism, measured at baseline, only moderated the relationship between loneliness and sadness. Conclusions: The findings suggest being in a lonely moment may lead to the initiation or amplification of psychological distress immediately and the effects may linger over the day.

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2021.1927051

Keywords:

• Anxiety
• college students
• ecological momentary assessment
• loneliness
• sadness
• stress

Acknowledgment

The authors wish to thank the research assistants who assisted with data collection and the individuals that participated in the study.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of United States and received approval from the University of California, Merced.

Notes

1 It is important to note that it is not possible to measure psychological disorders such as depression or generalized anxiety as momentary outcomes, as these are conditions that are more stable over time requiring a pattern of behavior to be present (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Thus, when measuring these factors on a momentary basis, as we do in the preset paper, proxies are often used related to cardinal symptoms, such as assessing sadness or negative affect as a proximal variable for depression or feeling anxious for generalized anxiety.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by an Academic Senate Faculty Research Grant awarded to Matthew Zawadzki from the University of California, Merced.