Loneliness in a Post-Pandemic University Setting: A Qualitative Diary Study on the Lived Experiences of University Students

Introduction: Loneliness is a growing global public health issue in university students and is associated with a lack of social connectedness. With implications from the pandemic like changes in learning environments and social dynamics, social connectedness has gained more attention from researchers over the past few years. However, existing research on university students predominantly focuses on quantitative assessments of social connectedness and disregards qualitative approaches. Goals and Methods: The current study aims to address this literature gap by phenomenologically exploring the lived experiences of social connectedness in university students in the post-pandemic university setting. An inductive qualitative diary design will be used for the collection of first-hand reports from participants. Inclusion criteria will encompass being a university student and currently taking university classes. Participants will be asked to complete diary entries for five days a week over a total period of two weeks, to explore the lived experiences of social connectedness in the context of daily university experiences. Diary entries will be completed on the experience sampling app Expiwell and can be either written or recorded as an audio file. To analyze the data, interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) will be used, which will allow for the construction of the phenomenon of social connectedness. Conclusions: This study aims to add phenomenological insights into social connectedness experiences. The use of a phenomenological diary design will highlight the benefit of using digital qualitative methods to generate rich data by reducing coercion and influence from the researchers. The phenomenological analysis will produce themes that reflect how university students feel and think about social connectedness in the post-pandemic university setting. This will aid in understanding what encompasses social connectedness in the post-pandemic university setting and will aid in the planning of future learning environments that will foster social connectedness and reduce loneliness.