An investigation into the relationship between emotional schemas and loneliness in university students

Seperating loneliness into two constructs and investigating it as Emotional and Social Loneliness is considered to be important for understanding unique needs of lonely people (Weiss, 1973). This study focuses on Emotional Schemas, conceptualizated by Leahy (2002) as impicit theories individuals hold about emotions and related emotional processes, and examines their relation to Emotional Loneliness and Social Loneliness. Questionnaires were given to 408 participants and only 355 participants were found fit to satisfy research criteria. To measure the variables used in the research, The De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale (DJGLS) and the Leahy Emotional Schema Scale (LESS) were administered to a sample of 355 voluntary participants, consisting of 98 men and 257 women, all students at the same university, aged between 18 and 25. As the data collected from the scales did not meet assumptions of normality, non-parametric statistical methods were employed to analyze relationships between variables. The Spearman Rho correlation analysis revealed significant relationships between emotional loneliness and domains of emotional schemas related to comprehensibility, validation, weakness against emotions, dissimilarity to others, uncontrollability and rumination. Similarly, social loneliness showed significant relationships with domains of emotional schemas related to acceptance of feelings, validation, weakness against emotions and dissimilarity to others. The findings suggest that general tendency of perceving the world and others as dangerous that can be found in lonely individuals (Spithoven vd., 2017), may also be related to their evaluation process of their very own emotions. These results have been discussed within the framework of the literature.