Discriminative role of loneliness in discrimination of students with high and low mental well-being

Mental well-being is one of the essential constructs of mental health and identifying the factors affecting it is of paramount importance. Therefore, This study aimed to determine the role of loneliness as a predictor of mental well-being among students. It was causal-comparative research. The research population consisted of all male and female students studying in Tabriz University of medical sciences (N= 8286) in the 2018-2019 academic year that according to Krejcie and Morgan table, 255 students were selected by multistage cluster sampling method. For data collection from the Warwick–Edinburgh mental well-being scale (2007), Loneliness scale (1980) were used. Data were analyzed using statistical test discriminant analysis. The results of the discriminant analysis, leading to a significant discriminative function that according to this function, the loneliness variable had the ability in discriminating between groups. Also, Based on this discriminative function, 78/5% of the students were properly assigned in their initial groups. Based on the present results, in educational and research programs to increase the mental well-being among students, loneliness needs special attention.