Developmental trajectory and interaction between loneliness and social support among middle school students
Objective To analyze the developmental trajectories of middle school students'loneliness and social support,as well as to explore the interaction between loneliness and social support,so as to provide the evidence-based support for the mental health development of adolescents.Methods A total of 989 first-year students from four public middle schools in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture,Hunan Province were selected for three follow-up surveys by a cluster random sampling method(T1:March 2023,T2:June 2023,T3:December 2023).The UCLA Loneliness Scale-20(ULS-20)and Social Support Scale for University Students(SSSUS)were employed for questionnaire data collection.The growth mixture modeling was utilized to test the developmen-tal trajectories of loneliness and social support among middle school students,while the cross-lagged analysis was performed to in-vestigate their mutual influence.Results The scores for loneliness and social support in T1,T2 and T3 were(43.1±5.8,42.5±6.8,42.0±6.9;55.9±12.0,60.7±15.7,60.4±16.7),respectively.Correlational analysis revealed a significant negative correlation between loneliness levels(Tl,T2,T3)and social support(T1,T2,T3)(r=-0.47 to-0.36,P＜0.01).Growth mixture modeling indicated a linear declining trend of middle school students'loneliness,and the developmental trajectory of social support showed a linear increasing trend,with significant individual differences in initial levels and rates of change(P＜0.05).Cross-lagged analyses revealed that loneliness levels at T1 negatively predicted social support scores at T2(β=-0.16),and loneliness levels at T2 nega-tively predicted social support scores at T3(β=-0.12)(P＜0.05).Additionally,prior loneliness positively predicted its subsequent levels,with path coefficients of 0.58 and 0.47,respectively(P＜0.05).Social support scores at T1 negatively predicted loneliness levels at T2(β=-0.10),while scores at T2 negatively predicted loneliness levels at T3(β=-0.15)(P＜0.05).Prior loneliness al-so positively predicted its subsequent levels,with path coefficients of 0.43 and 0.44,respectively(P＜0.05).Conclusion The de-velopmental trajectory of middle school students'loneliness demonstrates a decreasing trend,while that of social support exhibits a linear increasing trend,indicating a longitudinal causal relationship between loneliness and social support.
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