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Young People and Loneliness

‘Loneliness can be a coping strategy to avoid hurt in the long run.’

Young Person, Mental Health Foundation Focus Group

The physical and social distance restrictions imposed during Covid-19 led to extended periods of isolation for most citizens across the country. These restrictions also had an impact on children and young people, with many of them being away from their friends, education staff, trusted adults, extra-curricular groups, extended families and wider community networks for long periods.

One of the direct consequences of this for some has been experiencing loneliness, potentially for the first time over prolonged periods. Loneliness can be defined as the state of distress or discomfort that results when we perceive a gap between our need for social connection and experiencing those connections.

'Loneliness is directly linked to worse mental health in CYP'

CoTN, 2024

The Mental Health Foundation ran an #UnlockLoneliness campaign during the pandemic and provided resources and support for children and young people as well as carrying our research with a diverse group of young people across the UK who expressed the following:

“It feels like you are not important to anybody”

“It feels like nobody needs you and you are not valuable”

“It feels like you no longer exist”

One of the top concern they raised moving forward was isolation and loneliness.

        • 35% of young people said they feel lonely often or most of the time despite spending three hours on social media

        • In late November 2020, almost half of 18 to 24-year-olds reported being lonely during lockdown

        • A YouGov poll found that 69% of 13 to 19-year-olds felt alone “often” or “sometimes” in the last fortnight and 59% feel they have no one to talk to “often” or “sometimes”

Rates of loneliness were similar in 2020, 2021 and 2022. 2022 research also highlighted the following:

        • 5% of children aged 11 to 16 years said they often or always felt lonely - this was similar for boys and girls.

        • Children with a probable mental health condition were more likely to feel lonely - 18% of those with a probable mental health condition said they felt lonely often or always, compared with 1.7% of those unlikely to have a mental health condition.

        • Almost 13% of young people aged 17 to 22 years reported often or always feeling lonely, this was more than double the figure for children aged 11 to 16 years - loneliness levels were similar for young men and young women.

        • Loneliness was higher among young people with a probable mental health condition - 29% reported that they often or always felt lonely.

N8 Research Partnership - Child of the North and the Centre for Young Lives - Report 3: Improving mental health and wellbeing with and through education settings

Loneliness or Social Isolation?

The young people involved in the Mental Health Foundation study were keen to express the difference between loneliness and social isolation, advising that “you can be surrounded by people and still experience loneliness”, explaining how young people can be lonely despite regular close contact with peers in school, college, university, friends through social media and living with family.

They explained loneliness as a clear detachment from those around them, with some young people expressing this is used as a coping mechanism to try and combat low moods or depressive episodes. They express doing so in order to try and avoid being hurt and rejected within peer groups but by doing so, create those feelings of loneliness and isolation as a result.

“Loneliness can be a coping strategy to avoid hurt in the long run."

Social Media, Good or Bad?

This controversial subject continues to divide opinion. The restrictions enforced by the pandemic has certainly seen an increase to screen time for us all. For young people in this study, they were able to discuss the positive and negative aspect in relation to loneliness.

For those who believe that it is positive, they speak of its ability to connect with others who are experiencing loneliness and with like-minded people, without geographical constraints. For some, these feelings of friendship online were balanced against being exposed to those of opposing views, which could exacerbate these feelings of loneliness, whilst fostering alienation and isolation.

The young people involved in the Mental Health Foundation focus group advised that interaction over social media did not match the benefits of engaging face-to-face, citing the loss of in-person social cues, anonymity and the sense of unreality through social media being contributing factors.

What actions can we take as a school?

Since the pandemic there has been a return to normality and routine face-to-face interactions (socially and academically), for some re-connecting with peers and trusted adults in the school setting has helped combat the feelings of isolation. However, this has not been the case for everyone: for some CYP, as expressed earlier in the article, being surrounded by people doesn't mean you are not lonely.

The Mental Health Foundation have provided recommendations from the research and focus groups, with the Young Leaders focus group advising they want to see a number of actions. The one’s selected below are relevant to education services:

        • Meeting children’s basic needs: links between poverty, deprivation and disability to loneliness. An importance around inclusive practice within schools, including supporting the digital divide, school uniforms, the ability for all to participate in school trips and extra-curricular activities, high-quality school meals and a safe home environment.

        • Making a mental health and wellbeing policy a statutory requirement for all schools in England: the Youth Leaders identified schools as an important place of safety with a key role in promoting and protecting their mental health and removing loneliness. They believe each school should have a specific Mental Health and Wellbeing policy, with measures to tackle loneliness contained within this.

        • Integrating loneliness into mental health first aid training modules for teachers and support staff in regular professional development sessions: the Young Leaders spoke of the important role that teaching staff and wider school staff play in reducing loneliness and highlighted the need for high quality training on loneliness in young people, which they feel should be co-produced.

        • Schools should provide regular low-level training for parents and guardians on how to identify signs of loneliness in young people: Youth Leaders felt the parents were crucial to supporting loneliness and having this through the wider school community moving forward would be a positive suggestion to allow parents to be able to spot and support early indications.

        • Ensuring every school has at least one low level intervention to combat loneliness on a sustainable long-term basis: many schools use schemes like this already, such as buddy programmes or friendship benches. It’s important to be consistent with these approaches to support the long-term issues connected with loneliness. Care should be taken to ensure any interventions do not add additional stress to resources or teacher workload.

Moving Forward

Loneliness existed prior to Covid-19. However, the global pandemic has exacerbated loneliness for children and young people. We have a real opportunity to tackle this issue and the wider issues connected with the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people.

        • Nurturing a sense of belonging can help combat loneliness. Belonging is the extent to which people feel seen, heard, and valued. Give children and young people opportunities to explore and share who they are, as well as to socialise and interact in safe spaces.

        • Creating safe, nurturing, inclusive environments for children and young people is vital to help them feel connected and thrive. Working with partner organisations can support schools to engage with those children and young people who are not attending school and provide ways to improve their mental health and wellbeing.

        • Understanding the neighbourhoods in which we work is a crucial factor in dealing with the issue as there is a small but significant variability in young people’s reporting of loneliness between areas  in the greater Manchester area (CoTN, 2024). The #BeeWell programme which ‘blends academic research and youth-led change to ‘pivot the system’ so that wellbeing is given parity with academic attainment,’ carries out surveys and digital dialogues with young people. Findings and insights are shared with schools on how to respond to data for their pupils.

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Resources:

Reviewed: July 2024

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