COVID-19; Studying the Impact of Loneliness on Nostalgia, Well-Being, and, Life Satisfaction in University Students

During COVID-19, university students experienced loneliness and dwelled over the past memories they had, which consisted of a ‘regular life’ they lived prior to the pandemic. Loneliness refers to the state of being alone while longing for others. It certainly holds the ability to impact one’s nostalgic thoughts, psychological well-being, and their life satisfaction. Nostalgia is an emotion that brings in thoughts of the past to the present, affectionate thoughts in most cases. Life-satisfaction, that is, how people show their emotions and how satisfied they are; psychological well-being, that includes one’s relatedness with others and their own thinking. The purpose of the current research is to study the impact of loneliness on nostalgia, life-satisfaction and well-being in university students during COVID-19. A total sample of 60 people (46 females, 14 males) aged 18-25 years were taken. Standardized tools were employed to measure these variables. The results found a strong positive correlation between loneliness and nostalgia, and, a very strong negative correlation between loneliness and life satisfaction. In conclusion, when university students are lonely, they tend to dwell over their past memories and feel nostalgic, especially during COVID-19. The pandemic had a drastic impact on students’ university experience at a global level; where they couldn’t get the necessary support of family/friends depending on whether they were away from home or not. Similarly, students’ life-satisfaction would decrease when their loneliness increases. It can be suggested that strong social support including family relationships can increase students’ ability to feel less lonely as the pandemic progresses.