A Cross-Cultural Study into Loneliness Amongst University Students

Abstract

The main aim of this research was to determine whether two groups of students from different cultural backgrounds differed as far as their experience of loneliness was concerned. The researchers also wanted to determine whether the groups differed in their experience of loneliness for gender, age, domestic circumstances and socio-economic status. The two groups were formed as follows: Information was gathered from senior students of the Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga (N=189); data were also obtained from the students of the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa, by distributing questionnaires amongst second- and third year students (N=104). The data were analysed by using t-tests for independent samples. The results indicated firstly that students from the Charles Sturt University in New South Wales were significantly more lonely than students from the University of the Free State. Furthermore, it was found that female Australian students were significantly more lonely than female students from South Africa, and that there were no age differences for the two groups. It was also found that domestic circumstances play an important role in the experience of loneliness, since Australian students who grew up in happy parental homes were significantly more lonely than their South African counterparts.