Loneliness and social dissatisfaction in Turkish adolescents

The present study is an investigation of the relationships of sociometric s tatus, gender, and academic achievement to loneliness levels of Turkish ado lescents. Participants were 370 secondary school students (186 girls and 18 4 boys). Data on loneliness and social dissatisfaction levels of students w ere collected with the Turkish version of S. R. Asher and V. A. Wheeler's ( 1985) Loneliness and Social Dissatisfaction Scale. Sociometric data were ga thered by using a rating scale and a positive nomination measure devised by S. R. Asher and K. A. Dodge (1986) in which participants were classified i nto one of four groups (popular, rejected, neglected, and controversial). T he scores obtained from these measures were treated by a method similar to that of J. D. Cole, K. A. Dodge, and H. Coppotelli's (1982) standard score approach. Results revealed that sociometric status was significantly relate d to loneliness and social dissatisfaction as a function of peel relations. Members of the rejected group reported significantly higher levels of lone liness and social dissatisfaction than did members of the controversial, po pular, and neglected groups. The controversial group was also significantly different from the popular group in loneliness level. No significant gende r differences were found. Results also revealed a significant negative rela tionship between achievement scores and loneliness, indicating that as the level of loneliness increased, academic achievement decreased.