A Brief Description of How Teachers Experience An Infographic Loneliness Toolkit About Supporting Adolescents to Overcome Loneliness

TL;DR

This study explores how teachers perceive a 1-page infographic toolkit designed to help them support lonely adolescents in school.

Contribution

The study introduces a concise infographic toolkit and evaluates teachers' experiences with it for addressing adolescent loneliness.

Findings

Teachers who felt more knowledgeable about loneliness found the toolkit more useful.

Themes of clarity, attention to loneliness, and communication emerged as key benefits of the toolkit.

Suggestions for improvement included adding education and interactive student support features.

Abstract

Loneliness is a common experience amongst adolescents. As adolescents spend much of their time in school, it is important that school staff can support adolescent students experiencing loneliness. The current study aimed to explore teachers’ experiences of a 1-page loneliness toolkit regarding adolescent loneliness. An online survey to collect ratings and descriptions of experiences was distributed to secondary school teachers. Findings showed that both self-rated knowledge and experience of students experiencing loneliness were positively correlated with how useful teachers found the loneliness toolkit. Three themes were developed about how useful teachers found the toolkit; clarity, brings attention to loneliness, and communication. Two themes were developed about how the user experience of the toolkit could be improved; education, and interactive student support. Future research should investigate more effective methodologies aimed at supporting adolescents experiencing loneliness to aid teachers in supporting their students.

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