Gender Differences, Loneliness, Self Esteem and Depression in A Sample of Nigerian University Students

Abstract

Abstract
Loneliness is a hurtful feeling that has been attributed to a discrepancy between desired and achieved levels of social
contact, self esteem has to do with an individual’s overall evaluation of his or her sense of worth, whereas
depression was associated with isolated lives, the absence of pleasure as well as social and vocational impairment.
The UCLA loneliness scale (version 3), the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale (SES), and the Beck Depression Inventory
(BDI-2) were used to assess loneliness, self esteem and depression among 610 university students. Result revealed
various levels of loneliness, self esteem and depression among the students.

Full text

J Psychiatry Psychiatric Disord 2016; 1 (1): 26-37 26
Journal of Psychiatry and Psychiatric
Disorders
Volume 1, Issue 1 Research Article
Gender Differences, Loneliness, Self Esteem and Depression in
A Sample of Nigerian University Students
Friday E. Okwaraji1*, Godwin C. Onyebueke2, Calista U. Nduanya1 and Emeka N. Nwokpoku3
1Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria
2Department of Psychological Medicine, Enugu State University, Parklane, Nigeria
3Department of Psychology, Ebonyi State University Abakaliki, Nigeria
*Corresponding Author: Friday E. Okwaraji, Department of Psychological medicine, University of Nigeria,
Nsukka, Nigeria, E-mail: friday.okwaraji@unn.edu.ng; Tel: 08030812626.
Received: 7 October 2016; Accepted: 12 November 2016; Published: 18 November 2016
Abstract
Loneliness is a hurtful feeling that has been attributed to a discrepancy between desired and achieved levels of social
contact, self esteem has to do with an individual’s overall evaluation of his or her sense of worth, whereas
depression was associated with isolated lives, the absence of pleasure as well as social and vocational impairment.
The UCLA loneliness scale (version 3), the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale (SES), and the Beck Depression Inventory
(BDI-2) were used to assess loneliness, self esteem and depression among 610 university students. Result revealed
various levels of loneliness, self esteem and depression among the students.
Keywords: Loneliness; Self Esteem; Depression; University students

J Psychiatry Psychiatric Disord 2016; 1 (1): 26-37 27
1. Introduction
Loneliness is the feeling of distress that arises when an individual perceives his or her social relationships as being
less satisfying than what is desired or situations where the intimacy an individual wishes for has not been realized
[1, 2]. People who are lonely often crave human contact but their state of mind makes it difficult for them to form
connections with other people. Loneliness is not necessarily being alone; an individual may be in the midst of people
and still feels lonely, while he may be alone for a long period without feeling lonely [3].
Self esteem has to do with an individual’s overall evaluation of his or her sense of worth. In this regard, Hewitt [4],
argued that self esteem encompasses beliefs such as when somebody tells himself or herself, “I am competent”; or “I
am worthy”, as well as emotions such as triumph, despair, pride and shame. Self-esteem is having confidence in
oneself, a satisfaction of what one is and the self-respect that confidence brings. It is the appraisal or assessment of a
person about his or her self worth [5].
According to DSM-IV-TR [33], some of the signs of depression include deep sorrow or grief, insomnia, loss of
appetite, unpleasant mood, hopelessness, irritability, self dislike and suicidal tendencies. Rabkin et al. [6], further
argued that depression was associated with isolated lives, the absence of pleasure as well as social and vocational
impairment. Depression may impair adolescents’ academic performance, lead to school refusal as well as other
forms of antisocial behaviors including truancy, delinquency, promiscuity, teenage pregnancy and equally can
increase the risk of suicide among adolescents [7-9]. It has been revealed that self esteem influences depression and
some had suggested that depression leads to low self esteem. For instance Furnham et al. [34] reported that self
esteem is an important predictor of happiness and that higher levels of self esteem predict lower levels of depression.
Studies have reported that loneliness is associated with low self esteem [10-12]. Horowitz et al. [13] found that
lonely people have greater difficulty than non lonely people in generating effective solutions to their interpersonal
problems. When they explored lonely people's attributional styles, these researchers found that lonely people were
more likely than non lonely people to attribute their lack of interpersonal successes to their own abilities and
deficient traits, thereby suggesting that loneliness might negatively influence self-esteem. It has been argued that
growth and change during college years produces a variety of feelings in students. In addition to feelings of
excitement and anticipation, there may also be feelings of loneliness and depression. For instance, Booth et al.
argued that lonely students often report feeling depressed, angry, afraid, and misunderstood, that they may become
highly critical of themselves, overly sensitive or self-pitying, or even become critical of others, blaming others for
their situations. Brink et al. [14], explored the relationship between hypochondriasis, loneliness, and social

J Psychiatry Psychiatric Disord 2016; 1 (1): 26-37 28
functioning, and found that both hypochondriasis and poor coping skills were highly correlated with loneliness.
Subdividing depression into introjective (self-critical) and anaclitic (dependency) components, Schachter et al [15],
found that both subtypes of depression were highly correlated with loneliness, concluding that, while the introjective
subtype accounted for more of the variance in the loneliness scores, the anaclitic subtype was also significantly
related to loneliness.
Lewinsohn et al. [16] posited that passing through the process of identity development can be associated with some
problems including self doubt, social withdrawal, loneliness, lowered self esteem and depression. In their study of
1,455 students, Fur et al. [17], reported that of those students who experienced depressive symptoms since beginning
college, the four most commonly cited reasons for their depression were academic problems, loneliness, economic
problems and relationship difficulties. Drawing from the point of view of positive psychology, present study
assesses loneliness, self esteem and depression in a sample of Nigerian university students, with a view to making
more empirical data available in this area, since no known study has been conducted on this subject matter within
the study location. It will also make recommendations on the need to screen and identify students who may be at the
risk of developing loneliness, low self-esteem and depression, so that adequate psychological support will be
provided for them to help them adjust normally and make meaningful contributions to national development.
The study hypotheses are (1) There will be varying degrees of loneliness, depression and self esteem among
university students. (2) There will be gender differences in the level of loneliness, self esteem and depression among
university students. (3) Loneliness, self esteem and depression will vary significantly among university
undergraduates according to years of study, as well as age group.
2. Method
2.1 Design
This is a cross sectional descriptive study carried out at the University of Nigeria between the months of July and
August 2016. This university was the first indigenous university established by the federal government of Nigeria in
1960. The university has a population of over ten thousand undergraduate and post graduate students. However, only
undergraduate students were used for the present study because they constitute the bulk of the student population.
2.2 Subjects
Subjects for the study are male and female undergraduates who are studying various disciplines and are at various
years of study ranging from first to final years. Using the formula for prevalence study [18], a total of 610

J Psychiatry Psychiatric Disord 2016; 1 (1): 26-37 29
undergraduates were selected and surveyed for the study. Inclusion criteria were undergraduate students who gave
their consent to participate in the study, while exclusion criteria are post graduate and undergraduate students who
did not consent to participate and those who were sick as at the time of data collection. Participants who met the
inclusion criteria were then enrolled consecutively until the sample size was reached.
All the subjects were assured that their responses will be treated with the strictest confidence and no respondent will
be identified in person, thereby assuring them of the anonymity of their responses. Ethical permit for the study was
obtained from University of Nigeria research Ethics Committee.
2.3 Measures
Data for the study was collected by the authors between the months of July and August 2016. The subjects were
given self administered instrument that was made up of four parts. Part one contained basic socio-demographic
information such as age, gender, religion and year of study.
Part two was the Self esteem scale (SES) by [19], and this was used to assess self esteem among the participants.
The SES is a widely used and validated self–report measure for assessing self esteem. This is a ten-item measure
that is scored on a 4-point Likert type response format starting from 1=strongly disagree to 4= strongly agree.
Sample items in the SES include ‘I think I have a number of good qualities’ and ‘I feel I do not have much to be
proud of’. In the SES five of the items (2,5,6,8,9) are reverse scored. Total obtainable score including the reverse
scores ranged from 10-40 with high scores indicating high self esteem. For ease of analysis, we dichotomized self
esteem into high and low, thus scores ranging from 10-20 indicates low self esteem while scores ranging from 21-40
indicates high self esteem. The SES has a reported reproducibility coefficient of .92 and a test–retest correlation of
.85 over a two week period. In a study, AL Khatib [20] reported the cronbach alpha of the scale to be .86 and a two
week test-retest reliability coefficient of 0.79. For the present study the cronbach alpha of the scale was .84 and the
two week test–retest reliability coefficient was 0.76. Furthermore the SES has been used for studies in Nigeria [21].
Part three was the Revised University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), loneliness scale (version 3), [22]. The test
is used to assess subjective feelings of loneliness or social isolation; it is a widely used measure of loneliness with
over 500 citations. This is a 10-item scale that consists of self relevant statements that respondents answer on a 4
point scale ranging from 1= ‘not at all’ to 4= ‘frequently’. So scores ranged from 1= ‘low loneliness’ to 4= ‘high
loneliness’. The reliability coefficient of the scale was calculated as .94 by the test retest method, while the cronbach
alpha’s reliability coefficient was found to be 0.96.

J Psychiatry Psychiatric Disord 2016; 1 (1): 26-37 30
Total scores ranging from 15-20 indicate average loneliness; 21-30 indicates frequent loneliness, while scores
ranging from 31-40 indicates severe loneliness. This scale has equally been used for studies in Nigeria [23]. Part
four was the Beck Depression Inventory, second edition (BDI-2) developed by Beck et al. [24]. The BDI-2 was used
to assess depression among the respondents. It is a well-known self-report measure used to assess depression and its
severity. The validity and reliability of the BDI-2 has been well established across a broad spectrum of clinical and
non-clinical population. The BDI-2 positively correlated with the Hamilton Depression rating scale r=0.71, has a
one week test-retest reliability of r=0.93 and an internal consistency α =.91 Beck et al. [25-27].
The BDI-2 is a 21-item self report questionnaire, it is scored by adding the ratings of the 21 items. Each item is
scored on a 4-point scale ranging from 0-3. The maximum total score is 63. The questions in the BDI-2 cover a
broad area of an individual’s feelings such as sadness, self-dislike, past failure and loss of pleasure. Sample
questions include: I do not feel sad; I feel sad much of the time; I am sad all the time and I am so sad or unhappy
that I can’t stand it. In the BDI-2 total scores ranging from 0-9 indicates absence of depression; 10-18 indicates mild
depression; 19-29 indicates moderate depression while scores ranging from 30-63 indicates severe depression. The
BDI-2 has been used for studies in Nigeria [28].
2.4 Data Analysis
Data for the study was analyzed using the Statistical package for social science, SPSS version 16.0. Means, standard
deviations, percentages and the Student t-test were performed to find relationships between variables. The level of
significance chosen for this study was p≤0.05 at 95% confidence interval.
3. Result
Age of respondents ranged from 16-30 years (mean age= 20.9; STD =2.82). There was equal representation of males
and females (50% each), majority were Christians. Their years of study ranged as follows: 27.4% were in first year,
21.3% were in second year, 24.4% were in third year, 8.0% were in fourth year, 4.8% were in fifth year, while
14.1% were in final years respectively (Mean=2.84; STD=1.681).
With regards to loneliness, depression and self esteem, 19.0% reported frequent loneliness, while 7.2% reported
severe loneliness respectively (Mean=1.33; STD=0.606). Equally 20.2% indicated mild depression, 5.4% reported
moderate depression whereas 2.0%reported severe depression (mean=0.37; STD=0.678). Furthermore, 72.0%
indicated having high self esteem, whereas 28.0% manifested low self esteem (Mean=1.28; STD=0.450), (Table 1).

J Psychiatry Psychiatric Disord 2016; 1 (1): 26-37 31
Result further revealed no significant association between loneliness, self esteem and gender but there was a
significant association between gender and depression, x2 =9.605; p ≤ 0.02. (Table 2) Furthermore, there was
significant association between loneliness and year of study as well as depression and year of study, x2 =26.173; p ≤
0.01 and x2 =42.790; p ≤ 0.01 respectively, (Table 3). With regards to age group, result revealed significant
associations between age group and loneliness, age group and depression as well as age group and self esteem, x2
=41.6; p ≤0.05; x2=75.8; p =0.001; x2=29.5; p=0.005 respectively, (Table 4).
Age Frequency (N=610) Percentage
16-25 562 92.1
26-30 48 7.9
Gender
Male 305 50
Female 305 50
Religion
Christian 601 98.5
ATR 4 0.7
Others 5 0.8
Year of Study
First Year 167 27.4
Second Year 130 21.3
Third Year 149 24.4
Fourth Year 49 8
Fifth Year 29 4.8
Final Year 86 14.1
Loneliness
No Loneliness 450 73.8
Frequent Loneliness 116 19
Severe Loneliness 44 7.2
Depression
No Depression 442 72.5
Mild Depression 123 20.2
Moderate Depression 33 5.4
Severe Depression 12 2
Self Esteem
High Self Esteem 439 72
Low Self Esteem 171 28
ATR = African Traditional Religion.
Table 1: Distribution of socio-demographic variables, self esteem, loneliness and depression among the
respondents.

J Psychiatry Psychiatric Disord 2016; 1 (1): 26-37 32
Gender
MALE (n1=305) FEMALE (n2=305)
Loneliness
No Loneliness 221(72.5) 229 (75.1)
Frequent Loneliness 62 (20.3) 54 (17.7)
Severe loneliness 22(7.2) 22 (7.2)
Self Esteem
High Esteem 217 (71.1) 222 (72.8)
Low Self Esteem 88 (28.9) 83 (27.2)
Depression
No Depression 214 (70.2) 228 (74.8)
Mild Depression 68 (22.3) 55 (18.0)
Moderate depression 21 (6.9) 12 (3.9)
Severe depression 2 (0.6 ) 10 (3.3)
X2 =9.605; P =0.02 * 
* = Significant
Table 2: Loneliness, self esteem and depression among gender.
Year of Study
First Second Third Fourth Fifth Final
Loneliness
None (n=450) 105 99 118 34 23 71
Frequent
(n=116) 50 22 16 11 5 12
Severe (=44) 12 9 15 4 1 3
(A)*
Self Esteem
High (n=439) 126 91 112 31 17 62
Low (n=171) 41 39 37 18 12 24
Depression
None (n=442) 134 102 114 29 14 49
Mild (n=123) 24 24 28 13 11 23
Moderate
(n=33) 6 3 4 5 4 11
Severe 3 1 3 2 0 3
 (B)*  
(A)* X2 = 26.173; P ≤ 0.01*; (B) * X2 = 42.790; P ≤ 0.01*
* = Significant
Table 3: Loneliness, self esteem, depression and year of study.

J Psychiatry Psychiatric Disord 2016; 1 (1): 26-37 33
Age Group
16-25 (N=562) 26-30 (n2=48)
Loneliness
No Loneliness 418 (74.4 ) 32(66.7 )
Frequent loneliness 101 (18.0 ) 15 ( 31.3)
Severe loneliness 43 (7.6 ) 1 ( 2.0)
X2 =41.6; P ≤0.05*
Self Esteem
High self esteem 405(72.1 ) 34 (70.8 )
Low self esteem 157 (27.9 ) 14 (29.2 )
X2 =29.5; P ≤0.005*
Depression
Non 415(73.8 ) 27 ( 56.3)
Mild 110 (19.6) 13 ( 27.1)
Moderate 28 (5.0) 4 (8.3 )
Severe 8 (1.6) 4 (8.3 )

X2 =75.8; p =0.001*

* = Significant
Table 4: Loneliness, self esteem and depression among the age group.
4. Discussion
The result of this study had revealed varying degrees of loneliness, depression and self esteem among the
respondents. 19.0% reported frequent loneliness, while 7.2% reported severe loneliness respectively. Equally 20.2%
indicated mild depression, 5.4% reported moderate depression whereas 2.0% reported severe depression.
Furthermore, 72.0% indicated having high self esteem, whereas 28.0% manifested low self esteem. This pattern of
findings had previously been documented in various studies. For instance, Booth et al. [11], argued that lonely
students often report feeling depressed, angry, afraid, and misunderstood, that they may become highly critical of
themselves, overly sensitive or self-pitying, or even become critical of others, blaming others for their situations. In
their own contribution [14], explored the relationship between hypochondriasis, loneliness, and social functioning,
and posited that both hypochondriasis and poor coping skills were highly correlated with loneliness. Equally, [15],
subdivided depression into introjective (self-critical) and anaclitic (dependency) components and posited that both
subtypes of depression were highly correlated with loneliness. They concluded that, while the introjective subtype
accounted for more of the variance in the loneliness scores, the anaclitic subtype was also significantly related to
loneliness. Lewinsohn et al. [16] posited that passing through the process of identity development can be associated
with some problems including self doubt, social withdrawal, loneliness, lowered self esteem and depression. The

J Psychiatry Psychiatric Disord 2016; 1 (1): 26-37 34
varying degrees of loneliness, self esteem and depression noticed among the subjects in this study corroborates these
earlier findings. The findings of this study equally relate to that of Fur et al. [17] who surveyed 1,455 students and
found that of those students who experienced depressive symptoms since beginning college, the four most
commonly cited reasons for their depression were academic problems, loneliness, economic problems and
relationship difficulties.
Result further revealed significant association between gender and depression. Previous studies had equally reported
gender differences in depression [29-31]. Furthermore, mood disorders in general had been reported to be much
more common in females than males, with the pattern of difference between the sexes being consistent across
different cultures [32].
Loneliness and depression significantly correlated with the subjects’ years of study. This might be as a result of the
inability of some of the students to form attachments with their fellow students coupled, may be, with the unfamiliar
nature of the school environment, especially for those in the lower years of study, as well as being far away from
home. Furthermore, their inability to form new attachments and relationships with their new colleagues can equally
make them feel lonely and depressed. In this regard Cacioppo et al., maintained that loneliness is not necessarily
being alone, since an individual may be in the midst of people and still feel lonely, while he may be alone for a long
period without feeling lonely. Equally John et al., opined that loneliness is a hurtful feeling that has been attributed
to a discrepancy between desired and achieved levels of social contact. Whereas Peplau et al., linked the causes of
loneliness to factors such as changes in ones social networks, loss of significant relationships, separation from ones
personal networks, as well as personality traits like lack of social skills, fear of rejection and anxiety.
Result of the study further revealed significant associations between loneliness, depression, self esteem and age
group. This may be as a result of the social hierarchy, by way of seniority, that existed among students in Nigerian
universities. Junior students may have some feelings of inferiority interacting with senior ones, since most of them
are still passing through the process of identity development, which Lewinsohn et al., argued can be associated
with some problems including self doubt, social withdrawal, loneliness, lowered self esteem and depression.
5. Conclusion/Recommendation
The level of loneliness, self esteem and depression noticed among the Nigerian university students studied is
high.Effort should be made by government to identify these students and introduce regular psychological services to

J Psychiatry Psychiatric Disord 2016; 1 (1): 26-37 35
help mitigate these problems, so that it will not affect their academic pursuit.
Acknowledgement
The authors thank all the respondents who gave their consent to participate in this study.
Conflict of Interest
The authors have no conflict of interest in this research work.
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