Student psychologists and the Wellbeing Movement against loneliness

In June 2020, the organisation Caring Universities distributed a questionnaire to all students from four universities (VU Amsterdam, Leiden University, Utrecht University and UM) to gauge their mental health and to offer them tools to work on their own mental wellbeing. In January 2021, the questionnaire was sent again; this time to all the students who had not responded last year and to all new first-year students. The questionnaire also addressed the theme of loneliness. Maastricht University’s approximately 1800 responses yielded the following results: in 2020, 32.7%  of those who responded indicated they were lonely often to very often; in 2021, it was 36.7%, more than 1 in 3 students and an increase of 10%. Additionally, 27.3% of those who reported loneliness described their feelings as serious to very serious in both questionnaires.

Together with her colleagues, Liesbeth Mouha, Student Wellbeing Project Leader and Wellbeing Movement Coordinator at UM, expected a large influx of students seeking help at the onset of the corona crisis. This didn’t materialise: ‘What we have noticed is that the issues that students had before the pandemic have been amplified. If they were lonely, they are even more so now. If they already had symptoms of depression or feelings of anxiety, now they are even worse.’