A study of the loneliness and social support levels of the high school students living in dormitories and those living with their families

This is a descriptive type of research that examines the relationship between various variables, loneliness and social support levels of high school students living in dormitories and those living with their families. This is a comparative type of correlational survey.The population of this research consists of the high schools that have dormitories in the metropolitan area of Izmir. The sample of research is composed of 670 students randomly selected from the population attending school in the the academic year of 2008-2009.The dependent variable of this research is the level of loneliness and social support. The independent variables of the research are gender, grade, academic achievement, the education level, and economic level of parents, whether the parents are separated or not, the frequencies of parents' school visitations, existence of school staff with whom students can share their problems, and the frequencies of their getting help from the guidance office.In this study ?U.C.L.A. Loneliness Scale?, developed by Russell, Peplau and Ferguson, ?Social Provision Scale?, developed by Russell and his friends, and to collect information about the psychosocial variables, ?Personal Information Form?, developed by the researcher were used.Frequency analysis was made on the answers concerning the independent variables of the research. In addition, the relationship between the independent and the dependent variables were also examined. In order to determine the levels of the differences between the groups, t-Test and ANOVA were used. When a significant differecence was observed, Tukey Test was employed to determine the source of the difference; and the threshold of significance was .05. The program SPSS 16.00 was used for the analyses in this research.The results of the research have discerned that there are no significant differences between the high school students living in dormitories and those living with their families in terms of loneliness and social support.In addition, there is a high level of negative correlation among the students living in dormitories, those living with their families and all other students in terms of loneliness and social support. It has also been found out that there are significant differences in their loneliness and social support scores in terms of gender, grade, academic achievement, number of siblings, parents' occupations, education levels, socio-economic levels, whether their parents are separated or not, the frequencies of their parents' school visitations, existence of a school staff with whom they can share their problems, whether they get assistance from the guidance office at school, and the frequencies of their getting help from the guidance office.The findings of the research were discussed in the light of the literature and suggestions were made for future research and for guidance services.Key Words: Loneliness, social support, high school, student, dormitory