Middle Eastern Journal of Disability Studies

Background and Objective: Establishing meaningful communication based on trust and mutual support is one of the basic and natural human need. Now, when people do not succeed in creating social connections, the quality of life severely gets damaged and may lead to loneliness. On the other hand, considering that loneliness is a common phenomenon in adolescence and adulthood and usually affects university students and often leads to mental illness. Also, loneliness is a constant risk factor for physical and mental health, which makes the prevalence of loneliness in young adults alarming. For this purpose, the present study was conducted with the aim of developing a model of loneliness based on self-esteem and secular attachment with the mediation of self-compassion in students.
Methods: The current research was correlational-analytical using the path analysis method. The statistical population is all students of Shiraz University who were studying in the academic year of 2022-2023. The participants were selected by available sampling method. After removing inappropriate questionnaires, 274 people remained. The participants completed the questionnaires of feelings of loneliness (Russell, Peplova and Cortona, 1980), self-esteem (Rosenberg, 1965), Secular relations (Mehdiyar, Taghavi and Goodarzi, 2016) and self-compassion (Neff, 2003). The ethical considerations of the research included the consent and willingness of the participants, the right to withdraw, keeping the information of the participants confidential, informing the participants about the research process. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 22 and AMOS version 22 software. The significance level of the tests in this research was considered 0.05.
Results: The results of the path analysis showed that self-esteem (β = -0.268, p < 0.001) and self-compassion (β = -0.356, p < 0.001) had a negative and significant direct effect, and secular attachment (β = 0.194, p = 0.019) had a positive and significant direct effect of the loneliness. On the other hand, self-esteem (β = 0.145, p = 0.032) had a positive and significant direct effect, and secular attachment (β = -0.161, p = 0.011) had a negative and significant direct effect on self-compassion. The indirect effect of self-esteem on loneliness was negatively significant (β = -0.033, p = 0.014). Also, the indirect effect of secular attachment on the loneliness was positively significant (β = 0.029, p = 0.021). Also, the fit index was at a suitable level (X2/df= 2.707, GFI= 0.911, IFI= 0.910, PCLOSE= 0.094, RMSEA= 0.071).
Conclusion: Based on the findings of this research, it is concluded that reducing secular attachment and increasing self-esteem leads to increased self-compassion; As a result, it plays a significant role in reducing the loneliness of students. Self-compassion affects a person's understanding of his own evaluations and causes him to feel kindness and mutual connection with other people when faced with negative events, which leads to the creation of more positive and less negative emotions. On the other hand, the fewer relationships a person has, the more bearable his problems and sufferings are, and he reaches a non-judgmental understanding of himself and is patient and kind to himself, which in turn helps the person. It makes him feel less alone. Therefore, it can be said that self-compassion can moderate the negative effects of lack of self-esteem and more Secular attachments on loneliness and reduce loneliness.