Globally, many governments have set an objective to reduce loneliness, including among adolescents. So far, however, the focus has been on individuals, and is most often out of school time. In this article, Professor Pamela Qualter, Dr Rebecca Jefferson, and Dr Lily Verity discuss their work in the UK, and internationally, and argue whole school approaches can reduce child and adolescent reports of loneliness.

• The school environment is essential in understanding youth loneliness.
• But most interventions are aimed at individuals, and don’t take into account the larger social system, including the social relationships students have with each other, and with their teachers.
• Research from The University of Manchester has identified different factors in schools and classrooms which can be utilised to reduce loneliness among students.

What is loneliness, and why is it important?

Loneliness occurs when a person thinks their interpersonal relationships are insufficient in some way. It could be that the person is unhappy with the number of social contacts they have, with the closeness and quality of their social relationship, or that their need for social connection is unmet. It is a subjective experience, accompanied by painful or negative emotions. In interviews we have conducted with children and adolescents, they describe loneliness as a painful and sad experience, often accompanied by a perceived lack of belonging or connectedness, particularly to their peers.

Evidence suggests that while loneliness is transitory for most people, for others it can trigger thoughts and behaviours that lead to a prolonged experience. In our interviews with children and adolescents, they talk about prolonged loneliness as having no-one, or feeling like nobody cares about them; and are hopeless that the situation will improve. Such deep pessimism might explain why loneliness is linked to suicide ideation, self-harm, and suicide attempts. There is also substantial evidence links between loneliness and poor academic outcomes, and loneliness and poor employment prospects.

Who are the lonely students?

There are a range of risk factors for loneliness among young people that operate across multiple levels of the socioecological model (interrelations among various personal and environmental factors). Generally, the literature focuses on individual risk factors, but the school climate has been shown to be important for understanding loneliness. In our recent work, we have shown that schools’ disciplinary climate, teacher support and interest, peer cooperation, victimisation and discrimination levels are important in understanding student loneliness. Changing school environments so that they are inclusive and more cooperative is key to decreasing the experiences of loneliness among students. Supportive, interested, non-discriminative and accessible teachers are crucial to that change. A school climate encouraging cooperation between students can further mitigate loneliness – the development of guidance and training for teachers by the Department for Education (DfE) is a first step to creating this environment.

Our work suggests that good teacher-student relationships and student-student support can help reduce child and adolescent loneliness. Students’ relationships with their teachers and peers which include the recognition, understanding and acceptance of differences are particularly important. These findings indicate specific aspects of school climate that could be targeted by future interventions to support social connection and reduce the likelihood of loneliness.

Most loneliness interventions for young people are focused on the individual, and so are targeted at children who report loneliness. Those are important, but our work suggests that targeting school factors should also reduce reports of loneliness and prevent some of the experiences from occurring in the first place. Creating supportive teacher-student relationships, encouraging inclusivity, and using an authoritative disciplinary style should lead to increased social connection, and fewer reports of youth loneliness. Integrating these principles into teacher training is one avenue that could be explored by DfE, though policymakers should be mindful of the high workload experienced by the teaching workforce, and ensure guidance on social health is a priority in training. DfE should also consult on the creation of a ‘toolkit’ of techniques and best practice for school staff to draw on, to help embed these principles in the classroom.

School-based interventions for loneliness

Loneliness impacts the health and educational outcomes of young people, but there are few actions taken by schools and teachers to mitigate those effects. That is despite the fact that school and its social environment are associated with student loneliness.  We have shown that currently available interventions focusing on loneliness among children and adolescents have been aimed mostly at the individual level, targeting either social and emotional skills (both separately and combined), increased social interaction, enhancing social support, and psychological therapy. These targets are directly linked to drivers of loneliness at the individual level and are reasonably effective. However, such interventions are often expensive, and require intensive training of teachers. They also require important insight from teachers which can make addressing loneliness feel cumbersome. That need not be the case.

Indeed, our research suggests that attending to the psychosocial climate in schools is a manageable way to promote social connection. Making changes to the school environment is effective for decreasing reports of loneliness and is within the reach of most schools and teachers. This is particularly significant given that past research has shown that although teachers acknowledged that schools should seek to enhance students’ well-being, they often feel ill-equipped to do so. We acknowledge that teachers may not necessarily have the specialist knowledge and skills needed for the types of individual-level interventions that target students who report loneliness, and so local authorities have a role in integrating mental health service pathways (where available) into local schools, to ensure teachers have a clear referral route. It is well within the reach of schools and teachers to work, proactively and intentionally, to enhance aspects of the school climate – with the support of DfE, and local education authorities.

Looking forward after COVID

Creating a positive school environment, with teacher- and classmate-support, and an inclusive and protective school community, will have significant benefits for child and adolescent reports of loneliness. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, students need those protective and inclusive environments more than ever.

We have argued elsewhere that such school-based approaches will need to be developed jointly with local students to consider the specificities of each setting, including school facilities and constraints, and the composition of the student and teaching body. This engaged approach is likely to ensure buy-in from the students, which is essential for the success of any intervention.

Tackling loneliness is not just a moral or ethical issue – it is one that is grounded in health and economic realities. In 2017, a report estimated the cost of loneliness to employers at £2.5 billion, and this figure is likely to have increased in the six years since. With adolescent years a key formative period for mental health in adult life, intervening at school-level makes sense for wealth, health, and – most importantly – the quality of life for our children and young people.