Gratitude mediates the relationship between leisure social support and loneliness among first-year university students during the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan

Loneliness negatively influences mental health and well-being among first-year university students, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. To inform efforts to help first-year university students address loneliness, this study examined if two types of leisure social support (i.e., leisure emotional support and leisure instrumental support) predict gratitude, and if gratitude predicts loneliness in this population. A total of 310 first-year university students who attended a private university participated in this study. In-person surveys were used to measure leisure emotional support, leisure instrumental support, gratitude, and loneliness. Structural equation modeling was conducted to analyze data. Results indicated that increases in leisure emotional support and leisure instrumental support correlated with increases in gratitude, and increases in gratitude correlated with decreases in loneliness in the mediation model. Implications of these results in terms of reducing loneliness among first-year university students during the pandemic are discussed.