Department of Psychological, Health, and Territorial Sciences, University "G. d'Annunzio" of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy.
Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, and Health Studies, Sapienza" University of Rome, Via Degli Apuli, 1, 00185, Rome, Italy.
BMC Psychol. 2023 Mar 6;11(1):60. doi: 10.1186/s40359-023-01099-1.
Loneliness is increasingly acknowledged as a serious public health issue. This longitudinal study aimed to assess the extent to which psychological distress and alexithymia can predict loneliness among Italian college students before and one year after the COVID-19 outbreak.
A convenience sample of 177 psychology college students were recruited. Loneliness (UCLA), alexithymia (TAS-20), anxiety symptoms (GAD-7), depressive symptoms (PHQ-9), and somatic symptoms (PHQ-15) were assessed before the COVID-19 outbreak and one year after the spread of COVID-19 worldwide.
After controlling for baseline loneliness, students with high levels of loneliness during lockdown showed worsening psychological distress and alexithymic traits over time. Suffering from depressive symptoms before COVID-19 and the aggravation of alexithymic traits independently predicted 41% of perceived loneliness during the COVID-19 outbreak.
College students with higher levels of depression and alexithymic traits both before and one year after the lockdown were more at risk of suffering from perceived loneliness and may constitute the target sample for psychological support and intervention.
孤独感日益被视为严重的公共卫生问题。本纵向研究旨在评估心理困扰和述情障碍在 COVID-19 爆发前后对意大利大学生孤独感的预测程度。
本研究采用方便抽样法招募了 177 名心理学专业大学生。在 COVID-19 爆发前和全球 COVID-19 传播一年后，使用 UCLA 孤独感量表、TAS-20 述情障碍量表、GAD-7 焦虑症状量表、PHQ-9 抑郁症状量表和 PHQ-15 躯体症状量表对大学生进行评估。
在控制基线孤独感后，在封锁期间孤独感较高的学生随着时间的推移表现出心理困扰和述情障碍特征的恶化。在 COVID-19 之前患有抑郁症状和述情障碍特征的加重独立预测了 COVID-19 爆发期间 41%的感知孤独感。
在封锁前后抑郁和述情障碍特征较高的大学生更容易遭受感知孤独感的困扰，他们可能是心理支持和干预的目标样本。
