Loneliness Comparison Between Only Child and Siblings

Level of Loneliness between Single Child and Child having siblings Department Of Applied Psychology The Islamia University of Bahawalpur Research Supervisor Miss Ambreen Anjum Researchers Group 2 GirlsBoys Name Roll No Name Roll No Aniqa Sleem10M. Zubair12 Komal Aithaf15M. Hassan18 Sadia Kanwal16 Sobia Humaira17 Sana Majeed19 Threem Zara20 Supervisor Certificate It is certified that group no. 2 third semester BS Psychology session 2010-2014 has completed all the requirements of research work on “Level of loneliness between single child and siblings” under my supervision.

Ambreen Anjum Research Supervisor Psychology Department Islamia University Bahawalpur Contents Sr. No| Contents| Page No. | 1| Abstract| 5| 2| Introduction| 6| 3| Method| 7| 4| Results| 9| 5| Discussion| 13| 6| References| 14| 7| Appendix| 15| Abstract This research is conducted on the topic level of loneliness between single child and siblings. The population of our research paper is Bahawalpur City and our sample is IUB students. We used purposive sampling to select the participants from the population. A total of 90 students (38 single child and 52 siblings) aged over eighteen to twenty five years were selected.

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The UCLA Loneliness Scale Version 3 designed by Russell, Kao, et al.

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, (1987) was used in this study. We used pretested Urdu translated version of this questionnaire. This questionnaire contained 20 questions regarding loneliness. The mean loneliness score for single children was 47. 8±10. 2 and while for siblings this score was 47. 8±8. 4. Student T test was applied, for significance; there was significant difference between two groups with p value of 0. 49. Introduction Loneliness occurs when a person network of social relationship is smaller or less satisfying than the person desire.

Thus loneliness reflects a discrepancy between the person desire and achieved level of social interaction (Russell, Kao, et al. , 1987). Lonely people have poor social skills and lack specific skill required for interacting with others and developing friendships (Jones, Hobbs, & Hockenbury, 1982). Lonely people simply may not know how to initiate an interaction with someone or how to keep a conversation lively. This line of reasoning simply suggests that training these people to develop social skills might provide a simple solution (kitson and morgan 1990).

Loneliness is considered to be an expression of negative feelings of missing relationships and occurs in individuals of all ages. The opposite of loneliness is embeddedness. Loneliness is one of the possible outcomes of the evaluation of a situation in which an individual has a small number of relationships (pinquart 2003). However, many determinants work together in explaining why some people with small numbers of social contacts consider themselves lonely whereas others feel good and sufficiently embedded.

Among these determinants is the presence or absence of an intimate partner (dannenbeck 1995); the size and functioning of family relationships, particularly parent-child bonds (kaufman and uhlenberg 1998) The purpose of present study was to find out difference of loneliness between only child and child having siblings. Method Participants A total of 90 students (24 boys, 66 girls) aged over eighteen to twenty five years were selected from six different departments of the Islamia University of Bahawalpur. Purposive sampling technique was employed for selecting participants.

Out of these 38 were “only child” and 52 child were having siblings. Materials The UCLA Loneliness Scale Version 3 designed by Russell, Kao, et al. , (1987) was used in this study. We used its pretested Urdu translated version. This questionnaire contained 20 questions regarding loneliness. Out of 20 questions, 9 questions were structured positively or non lonely worded and remaining 11 were structured negatively reflecting loneliness. These positive questions were added to exclude the possibility of systematic biases in responding. For each questions 4 option were given which are “rarely, sometime, never and always”.

For positive questions score allotted to each option were as “4 for never, 3 for rarely, 2 for sometimes and 1 for always”. For negative questions this scoring was reversed. For categorizing loneliness, 3 categories were formed. Up to 49 score was considered normal, 50 to 59 score were considered moderate loneliness, above 59 score was considered high loneliness. This grading of loneliness was based on special correspondence with the author of this questionnaire Mr. Russell through email. The original author recommended this classification system. Along with this questionnaire 8 basic demographic questions were also administered egarding name, education, age, gender, residence, parents, birth order and number of siblings. Procedure The study was carried-out in December 2011. The departments were first contacted by application to the head of department and this was followed-up by a telephone conversation to arrange a suitable date and time for the department to be visited. Prior consent was taken from participants. Before the questionnaire was administered, students were assured of the confidentiality of their responses, that there were no right or wrong answers and that they should fill in the questionnaire as truthfully as possible.

After collecting the questionnaire the loneliness score was computed manually by respective researchers. Then whole data was stored and analyzed using SPSS Version 16 software and Microsoft Excel 2007 for windows. Cross tables were generated and p value was computed by SPSS. Mean, S. D and Student T test was performed on Microsoft Excel 2007. Chi Square test was used for significance testing. Results In this study 90 students are selected. Their basic demographic profile is given in table no. 1. Table no 1. Demographic data| | | Frequency| Percentage| 1| Respondent Gender| Male| 24| 26. 6| | | Female| 66| 73. 3| | Respondents Birth order| Only Child| 38| 41. 1| | | Having Siblings| 52| 58. 8| 3| Respondents family system| Nuclear| 75| 83. 3| | | Extended| 15| 16. 6| 4| Respondents Parents| Both Alive| 77| 85. 5| | | Mother Died| 3| 0. 03| | | Father died| 9| 0. 1| | | Both died| 1| 0. 01| 5| Respondents Residence| Rural| 16| 0. 17| | | Urban| 74| 82. 2| Out of ninety students 66 were female. Out of ninety students 24 were male. 41. 1% students were only child. 58. 8 % students had siblings. 83. 3% students live in nuclear family system. 16. 6% students live in extended family system. Both mother and father are alive of 85. % students. Mother of 0. 03% students was died. Father of 0. 1% students was died. Both mother and father were died of only 0. 01% student. 0. 17% Students Lived in rural areas. 82. 2% Students lived in urban areas. Association of loneliness with birth order Table no 2. Loneliness Score for only child Total number (Mean±S. D)| 3847. 8±10. 2| Loneliness Score for child having Siblings Total number (Mean±S.

D)| 5247. 8±8. 4| Student T test P value| 0. 49| Quantitatively there is significant difference among 2 groups of loneliness as indicated by p value. Association of loneliness with family system Table No. 3 | loneliness| | Normal| Moderate| High| | Total| FamilySystem| nuclear| 40| 27| 8| | 75| | extended| 12| 3| 0| | 15| | Total| 52| 30| 8| | 90| Chi Square Value 4. 098 P value 0. 129 Significant association was found between family system and loneliness. Child with nuclear family system feel more lonely. Association of loneliness with gender Table No. | loneliness| | Normal| Moderate| High| Total| gender| male| 13| 10| 1| 24| | female| 39| 20| 7| 66| | Total| 52| 30| 8| 90| Chi square Value 1. 577 P value0. 455 Significant relationship was found between gender and loneliness. Female feel lonelier as compared to males. Discussion This study evaluated the loneliness among only child and child having siblings. It was as questionnaire based study where two groups were compared. It came out be that that loneliness score is approximately same in two groups as evident by their mean loneliness score.

But student t test indicated that the loneliness is more prevalent quantitatively among only child. The sample size is small so the result of this particular study cannot be generalized. As it was a question based study it was prone to the recall bias and systematic bias. Along with difference in loneliness between two group their determinants were also studied which shown that the family system has significant impact on person social interactions and in turn on the loneliness. The children who belonged to nuclear family tend to have higher loneliness score with respect to children coming of extended families.

It may be that children in extended family have more exposure and develop better social adjustment as compared to children of nuclear families. Also it was found to be that females were lonelier than male. It may reflect problem in their social adjustment and due to constraints put on in our society that female felt lonelier and secondly it may be a chance observation or it may be due to selection bias as more of the researcher were females ( 6 females out of 8 researchers) and they could have preferably contacted females to fill the questionnaire as it was more convenient for them. References . Burger, E. (1986). Personality theory and research. (6 ed. ). wadsworth: New York. 2. Gierveld, J. D. J. ( 1987) . “Developing and Testing a Model of Loneliness. ” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53,119-28. 3. Gierveld, J. D. J. (2006). A 6-item scale for overall, emotional and social loneliness. Research on Aging, 28,5, 582-598. 4. Kaufmann. , Gayle, & Uhlenberg, P. (1998). Effect of life course transitions on the quality of relationships between adult children and their parents. Journal of Marriage and Family, 60, 924-938 5. Kitson, Gay C. and Leslie A. Morgan. (1990). The Multiple Consequences of Divorce: A Decade Review. ” Journal of Marriage and the Family, 52,913-24. 6. Pinquart, M. (2003). “Loneliness in Married, Widowed, Divorced, and Never-Married Older Adults. ” Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 20,31-53. 7. Russel, D. W. (1996). UCLA loneliness scale (version 3): Reliability, validity and factor structure. Journal of Personality Assessment, 66,1, 20-40. Appendix Department of Applied Psychology, The Islamia University BAHAWALPUR Consent: Are you willing to answer some question? Your identity and answer will be kept confidential and used only for research.

Yes NoSignature: _____________________________________ Name:_______________________________ Education_______________________________________ Age:____________Gender:____________ Home Residence : RuralUrban Parents: mother and father both aliveMother passed away father passed away Mother and father both passed away Family System: NuclearPolygamousExtended (Joint family) Hostel life Experience in years (if any):___ Total No of Siblings: Male_____ Female________ Your Birth order:_________________ For each of the following statement, please indicate how often you feel the way described.

Here is an example: How often do you feel happy? If you never felt happy, you would respond “never”, if you always feel happy, you would respond “always” | Never| Rarely| Sometimes| Always| How often do you feel that you lack companionship? | 1| 2| 3| 4| How often do you feel that there is no one you can turn to? | 1| 2| 3| 4| How often do you feel alone? | 1| 2| 3| 4| How often do you feel that you are no longer close to anyone? | 1| 2| 3| 4| How often do you feel that your interests and ideas are not shared by those around you? | 1| 2| 3| 4| How often do you feel left out? 1| 2| 3| 4| How often do you feel that your relationships with others are not meaningful? | 1| 2| 3| 4| How often do you feel that no one really knows you well? | 1| 2| 3| 4| How often do you feel isolated from others? | 1| 2| 3| 4| How often do you feel shy? | 1| 2| 3| 4| How often do you feel that there are people who really understand you? | 1| 2| 3| 4| How often do you feel that you are “in tune” with people around you? | 4| 3| 2| 1| How often do you feel part of a group of friends? | 4| 3| 2| 1| How often do you feel that you have a lot common with the people around you? 4| 3| 2| 1| How often do you feel outgoing and friendly? | 4| 3| 2| 1| How often do you feel close to people? | 4| 3| 2| 1| How often do you feel you can find companionship when you want it? | 4| 3| 2| 1| How often do you feel that there are people who really understand you? | 4| 3| 2| 1| How often do you feel that there are people you can talk to? | 4| 3| 2| 1| How often do you feel that there are people you can turn to? | 4| 3| 2| 1| (For researchers use only) Add Columns: + + + Total:

Updated: Aug 11, 2021
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Loneliness Comparison Between Only Child and Siblings. (2020, Jun 02). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/loneliness-comparison-between-only-child-and-siblings-new-essay

Loneliness Comparison Between Only Child and Siblings essay
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