Abstract
ABSTRACT Despite the growing number of international students in Portugal, there is a scarcity of quantitative research regarding how international and Portuguese students experience higher education. This study aimed to analyse the indirect effect of social support from friends on the relationship between depressive symptoms and loneliness among Portuguese and international students. Furthermore, the study proposed nationality as a moderator variable of the proposed mediation model. The survey data sample consisted of 940 participants (470 Portuguese and 470 international students) enrolled in a private university in Lisbon, Portugal, from January to May 2023. The bootstrap result for the indirect effect of social support from friends was significant, indicating that friends’ social support mediated the relationship between depressive symptoms and loneliness. Moreover, the results showed that the nationality of the students moderated the direct association between social support from friends and loneliness. No moderation effect was found in the indirect association (via social support from friends) between depressive symptoms and loneliness. This research advances our understanding of friends’ social support among university students of different nationalities while providing empirical data associated with depressive symptoms and loneliness. Moreover, the study delves into possible strategies to combat the expression of depressive symptoms and further loneliness.
Published Version
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