The Effectiveness of Shoenaker’s Self-Encouragement Training on Feelings of Loneliness among University Students

Human being is social and needs to establish relationships with his/her own fellows. A lack of favorable and satisfactory social relationships or, in other words, feelings of loneliness can bring about harmful effects on health and quality of life. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of Shoenaker’s self-encouragement training on feelings of loneliness among university students-teachers at Farhangian University in Zahedan. This quasi-experimental study followed by a pretest-posttest design with a control group and a one-month follow-up. The present study had a statistical population constituting of B.A. university students-teachers at Farhangian University-Resalat Campus for girls in Zahedan in the academic year 2017-2018. Among these people, a sample consisting of 30 people who obtained high scores on Usher Student Loneliness Feeling Scale (SLFS) were randomly selected and assigned to two groups, a control group and an experimental group (each including 15 people). Ten 90-minute sessions of the Shoenaker’s self-encouragement training were carried out on the experimental group; however, the control group did not receive such training. After finishing these sessions, a posttest was conducted on both experimental and control groups and a month later, a follow-up was performed on them. To analyze the obtained data, a multivariate analysis of covariance was applied via SPSS-23. Results showed that mean scores on emotional and social feelings of loneliness obtained by the university students-teachers placed in the experimental group significantly decreased in the posttest and follow-up compared to the control group (P < 0.05). According to the obtained results, it can be concluded that the self-encouragement training based on the Shoenaker’s method can decrease feelings of loneliness by promoting communication skills and increasing social interests among university students