The Impact of Loneliness and Perceived Social Support on Intentions to Drop Out of College

Abstract

In a world of ever-increasing entropy, the COVID-19 global pandemic unmade a façade of contentment that preceded transitioning into work. A season meant to be filled with personal growth, identity formation, and social development was instead defined by isolation, psychological distress, and purposelessness (Wang et al., 2020). This study examined the impact of loneliness and perceived social support on college students’ intention to drop out of their school experience. To include an analysis of the COVID-19 global pandemic, the college setting was examined as a moderator to understand what impact virtual or in-person classes have on an individual’s intention to drop out. The goal of this study was to provide insight into the postpandemic college student experience and realize the implications of loneliness and social support on intention to dropout. Results were undetermined due to missing power, lack of statistical significance, and absence of normality. Despite these inconclusive findings, trends uncovered showed clustered responding toward the lower end of the dropout scale despite normal distributions among loneliness and perceived social support. Specifically, this trend was magnified when data were split between two classroom settings, with in-person students averaging a response of strongly disagree to statements indicating their intention to drop out. However, this study was limited in its generalizability and results should be interpreted with caution. Finally, a discussion of future directions should aid researchers in identifying alterations they can make to further study this population and these variables.