The effect of the perceived social support in the prediction of the loneliness of inclusive students

In this study, the level of perceived social support and the level of loneliness between inclusive students with disabilities and the children who show normal developement were compared and whether perceived social support is a meaningful predictor for loneliness was investigated. Besides this, whether there are distinctions in level of loneliness and social support perception according to gender, perception of success in classes and inability diagnoses of students were investigated. Research group is composed of the students who are taken primary or secondary education in central district of Bolu in the 2014-2015 academic year. In total, research group is composed of 128 students, 74 of them are normal and 54 of them are inclusive students who have mental, physical or learning disabilities. Loneliness Scale for Children and Perceived Social Support Measurement were used in research. Collection of data is transferred to pc through using SPSS 20.0 for the data analysis. Findings of the study reveal that inclusive students are lonelier than the normally developed children. Normally developed children perceive social support more than inclusive students. When the level of perceived social support increases, the level of loneliness decreases, thus, the perceived social support is a significant predicator for the loneliness of children for both groups. In the analyses among groups, loneliness and social support levels don't differentiate according to gender variable. As according to inability diagnoses, even if social support perceptions of normally developed children and students with mental inabilities are similar, the levels of loneliness differentiate. And as according to perception of success in classes, the students who feel alone also feel unsuccessful and perception of success increase when the social supports are friends and teachers; decrease when the social support is family. Key Words: Inclusive, loneliness, perceived social support.