Loneliness, college belongingness, subjective vitality, and psychological adjustment during coronavirus pandemic: Development of the College Belongingness

Loneliness is a serious risk factor for healthy development and flourishing. Although loneliness has been revealed to play an important role in psychological health and well-being, little is known about moderating and mitigating mechanisms underlying this association, especially, during adverse experiences (e.g., coronavirus pandemic). The current study purposed to explore whether subjective vitality mediated the association of loneliness with psychological well-being (i.e., psychological adjustment), and whether college belongingness moderated the mediating effect of subjective vitality on students’ well-being in the context of loneliness. The sample of this study comprised of 333 undergraduate students (69% female) from a state university in Turkey. They ranged in age between 19 and 45 years (M= 22.13, SD= 4.55). Findings from mediation analysis revealed that loneliness had a significant predictive effect on subjective vitality and psychological adjustment challenges. Subjective vitality also mediated the effect of loneliness on psychological adjustment of college students. Further, college belongingness moderated the mediating effect of subjective vitality on adjustment and had a protective effect on the association between loneliness and subjective vitality in college students. These results provide evidence suggesting that college belongingness and subjective vitality are important mechanisms that may help to develop prevention and intervention strategies to foster psychological health and well-being of students at university settings