The Impact of Loneliness to Depression: An evidence from College Students in Vietnam

: This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between loneliness and depression among college students in Vietnam. The study sample consisted of 523 students from the Economics/Business and Engineering disciplines, who participated in the survey by responding to questionnaires based on the De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale (DJGLS) and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS - 21) indicators. The findings of this study indicate that while social loneliness meets the validation standards, emotional loneliness is incongruent with the context and study participants in Vietnam. The final results reveal a positive correlation between loneliness and depression (r = 0.42, P-value < 0.005). Subsequently, the research team provides recommendations that college students should actively participate in social and recreational activities, maintain relationships with friends and family to alleviate social loneliness, thereby minimizing the likelihood of developing depression. Social organizations should strive to create a friendly, open environment that fosters a sense of connection and belonging for everyone.

suggested that feelings of loneliness are attributable to insufficient amounts of social interaction as well as lack of meaningful and intimate relationships with others.Although loneliness is an emotionally distressing experience, it can be a valuable signal that an individual's personal relationships are inadequate in some important way (Ponzetti, 1990).Specifically, loneliness is the distressing feeling that occurs when a person's social relationships are perceivedas being less satisfying than what is desired.According to Rahman et al., (2017), loneliness may be caused by a multitude of factors.For instance, some individuals may experience loneliness because they don't have friends or they lack relationships in the community or society at large.Others may experience loneliness because they may be experiencing an emotional crisis.Emotional loneliness and social loneliness are the two facets of loneliness that the research team selected and focused on analyzing.
Loneliness exists within every age group; however, adolescents and young adults appear to be particularly vulnerable (Rubenstein & Shaver, 1982).Researchers have pointed out that adolescents experience more loneliness than any other age group (Jones et al., 1991).Specifically, late adolescence and early adulthood (meaning college age) carry a particularly high risk of experiencing loneliness (Deniz et al., 2005;Ponzetti, 1990).In fact, earlier studies have indicated that loneliness is a common issue among college students (Shaver et al., 1985).The transition from adolescence to young adulthood makes college students a particularly vulnerable group to feelings of loneliness (Diehl et al., 2018).This may be related to the specific risk factors of the developmental process, such as living away from home and their local community, as well as establishing new social relationship networks.
The efforts of college students to integrate, plan for the future, and cope with being away from home often lead to anxiety and depression among them (Hasanah et al., 2020).It is evident that depression in college students is highly prevalent, as this demographic is undergoing the transition from adolescence to adulthood, a period that can bring about stress in life.According to the World Health Organization (2008), depression is a common mental disorder.In the United States, nearly half of individuals in college age experience mental health disorders (Blanco et al., 2008).Similarly, over 20% of Chinese college students suffer from depression, and this rate has been steadily increasing over the past decade (Liu et al., 2019).
In this article, the research team focuses on the structure of loneliness based on two facets: emotional loneliness and social loneliness, subsequently exploring the impact of loneliness on depression among college students in Vietnam.
Longitudinal studies have demonstrated that loneliness and depression mutually influence each other.This means that lonely individuals are more likely to become depressed, but depression can also exacerbate their loneliness.However, the mechanisms behind the complex relationship between loneliness and depression remain unclear, especially for younger individuals (Achterbergh et al., 2020).Therefore, this study will focus on analyzing the impact of loneliness on depression based on two facets: emotional loneliness and social loneliness.

Emotional loneliness
Emotional connection between the breakup of a romantic relationship and the onset of severe depression, which is increasingly observed in younger populations (Monroe et al., 1999).

Social loneliness
Social loneliness is the result of a lack of peer relationships (Weiss, 1975).In a study involving 110 depressed students, Eisemann (1984) found that loneliness was inversely correlated with the frequency of regular contact with family members, and the number of friends had an inverse correlation with feelings of loneliness (Eisemann, 1984).Thus, the fewer connections with peers, the more students tend to experience loneliness.The finding indicated that the female participation rate was 69.4%, while the male participation rate was 30.4%.This gender distribution is attributed to the higher enrollment of female students in economics colleges in Vietnam.The urban -rural division among the respondents was not significantly different, with a fairly balanced representation.As the target population exclusively comprised college students, the number of employed participants slightly outnumbered those without employment but was not substantial.Lastly, the majority of respondents, constituting 78%, belonged to economic/business management colleges, while 22% of students from technical colleges.This distribution reflects the academic backgrounds of the participants and the focus on students pursuing studies in economics and business management disciplines.

Testing of the measurement scale
Assessing reliability in the proposed model The reliability testing results for the depression factor indicate a satisfactory level of measurement accuracy and adherence to statistical criteria.Specifically, the Cronbach's Alpha coefficient for the depression factor exceeded 0.8 (Cronbach's Alpha = 0.926), and the corrected item-total correlation for each variable was greater than 0.      The research conducted a data analysis to examine the impact of loneliness on depression among college students in Vietnam.The study results revealed a positive association between loneliness and depression.Particularly, the analysis of the loneliness factor indicated that three observed variables within the emotional aspect of loneliness did not meet the reliability criteria of Cronbach's Alpha and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA).This discrepancy is attributed to variations in the study's subjects and context.On the other hand, the social aspect of loneliness (comprising LL4, LL5, LL6) exhibited a positive impact on depression.This phenomenon can be explained by loneliness, contrary to the inherent nature of human beings, who tend to engage in social communication and bonding (Cacioppo & Patrick, 2008).Loneliness, stemming from deficiencies in the quality and quantity of an individual's social networks, is a negative state.Especially during the college years, which mark the transition from adolescence to adulthood, the desire for connection and interaction with those around becomes increasingly pronounced.
Consequently, when social interactions are limited, students are prone to heightened feelings of anxiety, shyness, hostility, social communication apprehension, and diminished self-esteem.These are also indicative symptoms of depression (e.g., Berscheid & Reis, 1998;Cacioppo et al., 2006).
Based on the research findings, the authors propose several recommendations: Firstly, individuals should pay special attention to the contributing factors of loneliness and depression to better understand their own psychological states.Additionally, students need to recognize that therapeutic medications and psychological interventions may not always be the suitable choices for addressing issues related to loneliness and depression.
Secondly, students should actively engage in social and recreational activities and maintain relationships with friends and family.These relationships have been proven to mitigate the impact of loneliness and depression while supporting the psychological recovery process.
Thirdly, from a governmental and societal perspective, it is crucial to create a socially friendly and open environment that fosters a sense of connection and belonging, thereby minimizing the negative effects of loneliness and depression.Furthermore, there is a need to enhance mental health education for the younger generation, as this knowledge is essential for identifying and addressing mental health issues promptly.
Testing of CFA (Confirmatory factor analysis)The research team conducted Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to assess the overall suitability of the data, the quality of observed variables, and the convergence and discriminant validity.When inappropriate values were detected, the model was adjusted by establishing relationships with adjustment coefficients corresponding to changes in χ2 over a degree of freedom greater than 4, using a reference suggested by SEM model analysis researchers.Model test indicated satisfactory results, with a Chi-square/df value of 3.702 (≤ 5), CFI = 0.973, TLI = 0.962, GFI = 0.957 (≥ 0.9), and RMSEA coefficient of 0.072 (≤ 0.08).Therefore, the model fit indices met the standards set by(Hair et al., 2010).The P-values of the observed variables were all equal to *** (i.e., 0.000), indicating that the observed variables were well-represented in the CFA model.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.The result of Confirmatory factor analysis

Table 1 : Descriptive statistics
(Rahman et al., 2012)tionships and limited interaction among individuals have been studied to lead to various mental disorders, including the development of depression(Rahman et al., 2012).