This is the Fit2Belong Workshop page. Here, you will find the pre-workshop videos and the information for you to read before we meet at the workshop.
By the time you join us for the workshop, if you have read the information written here and watched the videos, you should be in a good position to contribute well to the workshop discussions. We are excited to meet you and learn from you as we develop school resources to help young people manage loneliness.
The Fit2Belong project is focussed on loneliness and the development of school and youth centre resources to help young people manage loneliness. But what is loneliness?
According to researchers, loneliness is an unpleasant experience that most people will experience at some point in their life. It occurs when someone feels like their relationships (e.g. with their friends or their parents) are lacking in some way. For example, you might experience loneliness if you do not have someone you can share secrets with. Or you might experience loneliness if you feel like you do not have enough people to hang out with. Experiencing loneliness is thought to encourage us to seek social connection.
Researchers have found that young people can feel lonely even when they are surrounded by people. This might be because they feel like they do not fit in, they are not confident around others, or because they do not like themselves very much.
Someone does not necessarily feel lonely when they are on their own, but being alone can make someone feel isolated and increase the risk of loneliness in some people.
Now we want you to take some time out from reading and think about what loneliness means for you.
Q1 – These definitions are based on how loneliness is experienced in adulthood, but we are interested in loneliness in young people. So, how would you define loneliness?
Q2 – What do you think can lead to loneliness in young people?
In this video, Professor Pamela Qualter talks about how many young people experience loneliness when we use the definition of loneliness used by academics.
The link below takes you to a transcript of Pamela's video. You may prefer to read what she says rather than watch the video. You can also save the transcript and put it into Google Translate if you want to.
How long does loneliness last?
For many young people loneliness is temporary and will get better once they have reconnected with their family or friends. However, some young people may struggle to reconnect, and their loneliness can become prolonged.
Being lonely for a long time can change the way a person thinks and feels about themselves, other people, and social situations. Their thoughts become more negative and they feel unsafe in social situations and interactions.
In an attempt to protect themselves from negative social interactions they can be on high alert, always on the look out for possible threats. Because they are looking for threats, they are likely to notice and remember more negative social information, and they may see social interactions and information as more negative.
For example, when we see two people laughing together it would seem that they are having fun together. However, someone who is experiencing loneliness and is in a negative mindset may believe that these people are laughing at them.
Always looking for threats and seeing things as more negative can make someone feel less confident around others. A young person may start to avoid social situations and push those close to them away. This can make it difficult to connect with and make new friends.
Q3 - What can be done to help someone your age break this negative mindset?
What are the consequences of loneliness?
Feeling lonely can make us feel stressed. Stress is the body’s reaction to threat or harmful situations, whether they are real or perceived. When stress is high for a long time it can damage our physical and mental health. Therefore, experiencing loneliness for a long time has been linked to poor physical health (e.g. increased headache, stomach ache, and backache) and mental health (e.g. increased anxiety and depressive symptoms). In extreme cases, loneliness can even lead to suicide.
So, it is important to try and reduce loneliness levels and avoid loneliness becoming prolonged.
What are the risk factors for loneliness?
Researchers have identified aspects of a person's life that can put them at risk of experiencing loneliness and at risk for loneliness being prolonged.
Loneliness is about our relationships with others (e.g. the quality or quantity of relationships). So, the things that contribiute to loneliness are generally things that affect our ability to develop or maintain relationships with others and how we view our social relationships.
Personal Characteristics
A person’s thoughts and feelings can put them at risk of loneliness, especially prolonged loneliness.
A young person may be at risk of loneliness if they do one or mor of the following things:
a) already have negative thoughts about themselves (e.g. low self-esteem),
b) have low confidence in social situations,
c) have tendencies to feel down (e.g. low mood),
d) blame their negative social experiences/interactions on themselves (i.e. self-blame)
Relationships with Peers
Researchers have found that young people place great importance on their relationships with their peers, so aspects relating to this may contribute to loneliness.
Being accepted by peers has been linked to lower loneliness; being rejected, excluded, or disliked by peers has been linked to increasing loneliness. Being bullied, either in person or online through social networking sites/apps, can also lead to feeling rejected and excluded, putting someone at risk of loneliness. Young people who are seen as different to their peers (e.g. those who look different, think differently, or have different values and beliefs) may be at particular risk of being bullied and experiencing loneliness.
Having at least one close friend can protect young people against the effects of rejection, exclusion, and bullying. Having no friends, friends who do not understand them, and/or having fall outs with friends may make someone feel lonely.
Here we can see that having good friends may be important to protect young people against loneliness.
Q4 – In your opinion, what makes a good friend?
School climate
Young people spend a lot of time at school so the school environment can be a useful place to help young people to have positive peer relationships.
In this video, Dr. Rebecca Jefferson discusses school climate, school belonging, and loneliness.
The link below takes you to a transcript of Rebecca's video. You may prefer to read what she says rather than watch the video. You can also save the transcript and put it into Google Translate if you want to.
Q5 – Think about your school environment (e.g. classrooms, lunch area, overall atmosphere at school etc).
a.What things have already been done in your school to make people feel like they belong?
b. What could be done to make young people feel more accepted and improve school belonging?
Here is an example of how students can help their peers at school. What other things might peers in school do to help others feel part of the peer group?
You have done a lot of reading and thinking so far. Take a break and come back to us when you are ready to continue.
WELCOME BACK
When we evaluated the research on loneliness, we realised there is not much information about what loneliness means to young people. In the Fit2Belong project, we wanted to find out more by interviewing young people in countries across Europe. So, we asked young people what loneliness is and how young people cope with it. In this video, Ms. Lily Verity explains what we found.
The link below takes you to a transcript of Lily's video. You may prefer to read what she says rather than watch her video. You can also save the transcript and put it into Google Translate if you want to.
Q6 - Think about what our results mean for you, your friends, and your peers. Are there differences between what the young people in the interviews told us about loneliness and how they cope with it, and what you think it is and how you have seen people manage it. Bring those ideas to the workshop.
Q7 - Think about whether what you think loneliness is matches what researchers have been saying loneliness is. Have the academics got it right or have we missed something?
LIVE WORKSHOP
The workshop runs from 23rd-26th November.
Use the Zoom link you have been given to join each workshop session. Below, we have noted what we will be doing in each workshops. We have also noted any homework that is required each day, and given you details of what that is.
We are excited to meet you at the workshops.
WORKSHOP DAY 1
23rd November 2020.
23rd-26th November (Monday-Thursday)
Turkey: 16.00-18.30; Lithuania: 15.00-17.30; Belgium, Poland, and Serbia: 14.00-16.30; UK, Portugal: 13.00-15.30
Use the Zoom link you have been sent to join the workshop
In the first workshop, you will work with others in a small group and discuss your answers to the exercises you completed above. Your group will feed back on (a) whether you think about loneliness in the same way as young people in the interviews, and (b) what you think can be done by schools/youth centres to help young lonely people.
HOMEWORK FROM WORKSHOP DAY 1
Listen, again, to Lily Verity's video on the findings from the interviews.
Before tomorrow's session, try to find or create something (an activity, a tool, a service, an app, etc.) that you think would support young people feel a sense of belonging in school, or something that would help young people overcome loneliness.
You should prepare a very short presentation of up to 3 minutes (maximum of 3 slides). Include the following information in your slides:
1. What you have come up with that will help lonely young people.
2. How it works.
3. Why you chose it
WORKSHOP DAY 2
24th November 2020
Turkey: 16.00-18.30; Lithuania: 15.00-17.30; Belgium, Poland, and Serbia: 14.00-16.30; UK, Portugal: 13.00-15.30
Use the Zoom link you have been sent to join the workshop
In this session, you will discuss your homework with others in a small group. As a team, you will create a presentation that discusses the different ideas your team has come up with; you will note the pros and cons of each approach.
You will need a timekeeper in your group. Their job is to keep you on task and to ensure that you have something to presentt at the end of today's session.
Your team needs to decide on a spokesperson from your group. He/she/they will present the ideas back to the full team at the end of today's session
HOMEWORK FROM WORKSHOP DAY 2
Today, we want you to continue working in your small group away from the workshop session.
Today, you received feedback on your group's ideas. For the homework, group members will want to discuss whether there are some ideas that you want to drop and others you want to work on tomorrow.
WORKSHOP DAY 3
25th November 2020
Turkey: 16.00-18.30; Lithuania: 15.00-17.30; Belgium, Poland, and Serbia: 14.00-16.30; UK, Portugal: 13.00-15.30
Use the Zoom link you have been sent to join the workshop
In the 3rd session, you will work, again, in your small group. The group will develop the idea(s) you agreed yesterday were worth developing.
Essentially, your group will need to provide details on how your groups' idea(s) would work in practice and how it(they) could be used to help young people cope with loneliness.
You will need a timekeeper in your group. That person will keep you on task and ensure that the group have something to present at the end of today's session.
You will also need a spokesperson to feed back your group's ideas to the full team. That person can be a different one from the one who has presented on other days, or it can be the same person. That is up to your group.
WORKSHOP DAY 4
26th November 2020
Turkey: 16.00-18.30; Lithuania: 15.00-17.30; Belgium, Poland, and Serbia: 14.00-16.30; UK, Portugal: 13.00-15.30
Use the Zoom link you have been sent to join the workshop
In the final session, we will discuss the next stage of the project and how we will use the materials produced in the workshop to inform the next stage of work.
This material should be treated as private and confidential. © The University of Manchester, 2020 all rights reserved.
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