Loneliness, Love Attitudes and Satisfaction With Love Life Among University Students in Palestine: Gender Differences

Abstract The association between loneliness, love styles and satisfaction with love life among Palestinian university students was examined in this study. Gender differences in loneliness, love styles and satisfaction with love life was examined as well as the relationship among these variables. The study included 500 students (63.6% females and 36.4% males), aged between 18 and 26 years. Data were collected using the Loneliness Scale (UCLA), Love Attitudes Scale (LAS), Satisfaction with Love Life Scale (SWLLS) and a Demographic Information Form. Analyses showed that there were no gender differences in loneliness. Significant gender differences were found on ludic, males were more in their love styles than were females. Loneliness was negatively associated with Eros, Storge and Pragma love styles, and with satisfaction with love life. Multiple regression analysis indicated that all the variables accounted for 18% of the variance in loneliness scores. Satisfaction with love life appears to be the best predictor of university student’s loneliness.

the fact that Arab and Islamic countries have a variety of social, political, religious, and cultural fads, there is a cross-cultural disparity in love, such as faith, beliefs, uncertainty, and instability.
Before marriage, most Arabic cultures place constraints on women and men's romantic relationships (Ilhub is the most popular Arabic word for "love"). Marriage, as in many collectivist cultures, is a collective problem since it is the family who determines who their members will marry, not the people themselves (Abu-Rabia-Queder, 2007;Karandashev, 2017). People in Western cultures are free to have intimate relationships even though they are not married. As this is forbidden by Islam rules, there are no scientific studies published about love and its effects on mental health among unmarried people in Palestine (Abu-Rabia-Queder, 2007;Karandashev, 2017;Katalo, 2015;Sirin & Ummet, 2015). There are religious and belief gaps between Islamic and Arabic countries when it comes to love. In comparison to Turkish people, married people in Palestine were less likely to be in love before marriage (Friedland et al., 2016). Marriages based on love, on the other hand, are becoming more common among Arab youth (Oghia, 2015).
Love is approached and viewed differently by different people. Love has been studied in a variety of ways by various researchers and scholars who have described it and measured it using a variety of scales. According to Lee's (1973) love is a multidimensional construct, with six different attitudes toward love: passionate love (Eros, state of intense longing for union with another person, it is a romantic love), game-playing love (Ludus, love is seen like a game), friendship love (Storge, love only happens after friendship), practical love (Pragma, lovers looking for useful and suitable partners), possessive love (Mania, lovers are very jealous of their beloved, it is possessive), and altruistic love (Agape, it is described as all-giving or selfless love).
This study adds to previous studies by concentrating on university students' attempts to consider love styles.
During their university years, university students often fall in love. (Nan-Li, 2008). In general, as university students fall in love for the first time during their academic life, they have a good understanding of how they feel, but they have little understanding of romantic love and other practical feelings that might occur later (Hatfield & Sprecher, 1986). University life provides students with the ability to interact with people from various cultures and backgrounds. These exchanges of socio-cultural experience, which included their values and emotions, provided them with information about human needs such as love (Kline, Horton, & Zhang, 2008).
During university, romantic relationships become more important and lead to subjective well-being (Ha et al., 2010;Katalo, 2015).
Positive emotions, such as being in love, were found to have important associations with happiness and life satisfaction in research that focused on positive emotions (Katalo, 2015). As numerous studies have discovered, love also contains negative feelings such as depression (Sirin & Ummet, 2015).
There is some evidence that loneliness is negatively correlated with Eros love style for males and females, and positively correlated with Pragma for females and Ludus for males (Neto & Pinto, 2003;Rotenberg & Korol, 1995), although researchers didn't find any evidence to support the association between loneliness and love attitudes (Damsteegt, 1992).
However, other studies found that females were more Storgic, Pragmatic, Manic and Erotic in their love styles (Bailey et al., 1987;Hendrick & Hendrick, 1986;Hendrick et al., 1984;Rotenberg & Korol, 1995;Worobey, 2001) than males. Katalo (2015), using a different scale, also found that married university female students scored higher in feeling of love than male students in Palestine. Other researchers found no statistically significant differences by gender in all love styles (Sirin & Ummet, 2015), and in Storge and Agape (Bailey et al., 1987).
Satisfaction with love life has been developed by Neto (2005) from the original satisfaction with life (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985), which has been classified as one of the subjective well-being components, it is a cognitive evaluation of individual's life satisfaction with respect to their family, work, health and self (Diener et al., 1985). However, the satisfaction with love life focusing on the differentiation between satisfaction with individual's love life in general and the actual enjoyment associated with love, after it has been replaced the word life to the love life in the new five items (Neto, 2005).
Satisfaction with love life is a global cognitive dimension of individuals' love life (Diener, et al., 1985;Neto, 2005) that has been recently studied within the framework of Positive Psychology (Neto & Pinto, 2015). Neto There have been a few studies on the association between loneliness and love life satisfaction. Loneliness is linked to dissatisfaction with one's love life among university students (Neto, 2005).
The aim of this study is to determine the relationships between loneliness, love styles, and satisfaction with love life among Palestinian university students. The relationships between these variables are examined separately by gender and together in this analysis. Furthermore, this research looked into whether these factors play a role in explaining loneliness. In view of the scarcity and lack of studies in this area in Palestine, this study will provide additional information and awareness about the characteristics of university students as well as the current state of Arab culture.

Statement of the Problem
The most important determinant of loneliness among university students is social relationships, since studies have shown that the students with weak social relationships feel more loneliness than others (Al-Kadoumi et al., 2012). Loneliness has been associated with other individual factors, such as love styles and satisfaction with love life. Neto and Pinto (2003) found that loneliness was positively correlated with Ludus for males and with Pragma for females, and negatively correlated with Eros for males and females. They have also found gender differences on Ludus, Storge, Pragma and Agape love styles. Therefore, the main objective of the current study is to examine the relationship between loneliness, love attitudes, and satisfaction with love life among An-Najah national University students in Palestine.
An extensive search of the literature failed to find any published study on loneliness and its relationship with love styles and satisfaction with love life undertaken with a Palestinian sample. The purpose of the present Loneliness Love Satisfaction With Love Life study is to examine the gender differences in loneliness as well as to explore the association between loneliness, love styles and satisfaction with love life in a sample of Palestinian university students. We will explore also the predictors of loneliness.
In accordance with this purpose, one research question and three hypotheses were formulated: RQ1: Are there significant differences in the degree of loneliness, love styles and satisfaction with love life according to gender?
Hypothesis 1: For both gender Loneliness and Eros, Storge, and Pragma love styles will be negatively associated.
Hypothesis 2: For both gender Loneliness will be negatively associated with satisfaction with love life.
Hypothesis 3: For both gender Satisfaction with Love life will predict loneliness beyond the love styles.

Method Participants
A total of 500 university students, who were enrolled in different courses and different faculties of An-Najah National University in Nablus, Palestine, participated in the study in the academic year 2016-2017. Regarding gender, 63.6% of surveyed university students (318) were female, 36.4% (182) were male. The age of the participants ranged from 18 to 26 years (63.4% of participants were 18 to 21 years old, and 36.6% were 22 to 26 years old). Thirty-six percent were attending a course in sciences and 64% in humanities. About 13.2% of the participants were in the fifth year, 39.2% in the fourth year, 17.2% in the third year, 14.4% in the second year, and about 16% in the first year (see Table 1).

Measures Demographic Information Form
This form was used to gather detailed information on basic demographics such as student's age and gender, family income, family size, housing conditions, place of residence, accommodation, faculty, and study level attended by students.
We administered the Al-Omari and Jaradat (2013) version, and the Cronbach's alpha for the current study was .85.

The Satisfaction with Love Life Scale (SWLLS)
SWLLS was developed by Neto (2005). It comprises five items, that are assessed with a 7-point Likert-scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree). These items assess the subjective evaluation of his or her own love life. One example item is "I am satisfied with my love life." Cronbach's alpha for the current study was .83.

The Love Attitudes Scale (LAS)
LAS was developed by Hendrick and Hendrich (1986). The scale is based on Lee's (1973) color of love model, which proposed at typology of six major love styles namely: Eros, Ludus, Storge, Pragma, Mania, and Agape.
It is a 42-items self-report questionnaire, organized in six love styles, each style measured by seven items, that are rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree). Example items are the following "My lover and I became emotionally involved rather quickly" (Eros), "I can get over love affairs pretty easily and quickly" (Ludus), "The best kind of love grows out of a long friendship" (Storge), "I try to plan my life carefully before choosing a lover" (Pragma), "I cannot relax if I suspect that my lover is with someone else" (Mania), and "I would rather suffer myself than let my lover suffer" (Agape

Procedure
The data was gathered from a sample of undergraduate students from several faculties at An-Najah National University, Palestine. The measures were administered to the participants during a class time by the first author. The purpose of the study was explained to the students. Participants were asked not to write their names or identifying information on any of the questionnaires, to ensure their anonymity. Completing the questionnaire package took students approximately 1 hour.

Data Analysis
Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Independent sample t-test was employed on independent groups in order to identify the differentiation status of the university students on loneliness levels, Loneliness Love Satisfaction With Love Life satisfaction with love life and love styles depending on some variables such as gender, age, faculty and housing conditions. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the differentiation status of the university students depending on socio-demographic variables. Bivariate correlation coefficient was used to analyse the relationship between the level of loneliness, satisfaction with love life and love styles. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to test for the predicted effect of love styles and satisfaction with love life in university students' feeling of loneliness.

Results
Means and standard deviations of UCLA, SWLLS, and love attitudes by gender were calculated. Kurtosis and skewness coefficients were checked to assess univariate normality because multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) requires normally distributed data (Gravetter & Wallnau, 2000). According to Garson (2012) skewness and kurtosis coefficients between +1 and -1 are considered to indicate that data are normally distributed (see Table 2). As presented all study variables did not violate the normality assumption, where skewness and kurtosis coefficients ranged between +1 and -1 which indicate that data were normally distributed by gender. Furthermore, the study checked the normality assumption for all variables for whole sample (N = 500) and no variable violated normality assumption. Accordingly, using MANOVA is possible.
Preliminary tests were conducted to check assumptions of multicollinearity and homogeneity of variance for all dependent variables. In order to test the absence of multicollinearity between the study variables, Pearson correlation coefficients were computed to investigate the pattern of correlations between the study variables because conducting MANOVA requires that the dependent variables should all be moderately related, and any correlation over .80 indicates to the presence of multicollinearity (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2007). Therefore, correlation coefficients between dependent variables were checked by gender (see Table 3). As shown all correlation coefficients ranged between weak to moderate values for males and females which indicate the absence of multicollinearity among the study variables.

Nazzal, Cruz, & Neto
The assumptions of homogeneity of variances was assessed. Levene's test was used to verify the equality of variances in all dependent variables by gender. Levene's test results revealed that the homogeneity of variances was met (p > .05).
The results indicated that there were no violations of the MANOVA assumptions. Wilks's lambda was used to evaluate all multivariate effects and effect sizes for F-statistics were expressed as partial eta-squared.
According to Tabachnick and Fidell (2007) effect size based on eta-squared η p 2 = .01 corresponds to a small effect, η p 2 = .09 corresponds to a medium effect, and η p 2 = .25 represents a large effect (see Table 4). In order to test the third hypothesis, and to investigate the predictive value of love styles (Eros, Ludus, Storge, Pragma, Mania and Agape) and satisfaction with love life in loneliness, a multiple regression analysis was conducted by gender. The results are presented in Table 5.

Discussion
One of the main purposes of this research was to examine gender differences in loneliness, love styles, and satisfaction with love life among Palestinian university students, as well as the relationship between loneliness and other variables. The overall findings of this research are consistent with those of other studies; however, some of the conclusions are contradicted or supported by the findings.
There were no statistically significant differences in loneliness among university students according to gender.
These results are in line with the previous research showing no gender difference in loneliness (Aljabari, 2012;Al-Kadoumi et al., 2012;Alqeeq, 2011;Migdady, 2008;Peplau & Perlman, 1982;Shireen & Ibraheem, 2014;Wright et al., 2014). Loneliness is a common phenomenon experienced by university students, regardless of gender (Migdady, 2008). They are living together as a group in the same educational and social environment, interacting between females and males, making new friends, as well as exchange activities and information, which related to the social conditions and cultural background, which contributes to increased social interaction among them, and protect them from loneliness (Aljabari, 2012;Alqeeq, 2011;Migdady, 2008;Shireen & Ibraheem, 2014).
In general, there are no gaps or inequality between males and females in terms of cultural and educational backgrounds in Palestinian society; they are all experiencing and living almost identical conditions, which is expressed at the level of loneliness without gender differences (Alqeeq, 2011).
Several studies conflict with the current study findings, study results from (Demrl, 2007;Karaoğlu et al., 2009;Salimi, 2011;Tümkaya et al., 2008) that found gender differences in loneliness show that males report significantly higher levels of loneliness than females do, although some studies have investigated that females report high levels of loneliness than males (Abdullah, 2011;Al Khatib, 2012;Ozben, 2013). Might that occur to the gender-specific socialization of females and males, males are emotionally independent and they tend to their partners for support, but females are more complex socialized in their needs, and might the relationship with male is not enough. This is reflected even in the differences of loneliness among university females and males (de Jong Gierveld et al., 2016).
As hypothesized, for both gender Loneliness was found to be negatively correlated with Eros, Storge, Ludus and Pragma love styles. These results are in agreement with Neto and Pinto (2003) and Tehrani and Yamini (2020). When they have a romantic (Eros), friendship (Storge) and practical (Pragma) love styles, they have Loneliness Love Satisfaction With Love Life lower level of loneliness. This is also in accordance with Deniz, Hamarta, and Ari (2005) who found significantly higher level of loneliness among Turkish university students who do not have a romantic relationship than others who are in love. Additionally, lonely people have difficulties in developing and maintaining romantic relationships, and the students who had no romantic relationship reported high level of loneliness (Özdemir & Tuncay, 2008;Seepersad, Choi, & Shin, 2008).
As hypothesized, for both gender in the current study, a significant correlation between loneliness and satisfaction with love life was detected. Loneliness was found to be negatively correlated with satisfaction with love life.
A significant relationship between loneliness and satisfaction with love life has been revealed by some studies.
These studies suggest that satisfaction with love life appear to decrease one's sense of loneliness. This result is in agreement with Neto and Pinto (2015) who found a negative correlation between romantic loneliness and satisfaction with love life. The negative correlation indicates that when students were in love and satisfied with their romantic lives, they felt less lonely. It stands to reason that if a student is in a loving relationship and is satisfied with his or her love life, he or she will be less lonely.
As hypothesized, for both gender the predictive role of the study variables regarding university student's loneliness was examined. The results of the multiple regression analysis indicated that, Ludus love style and satisfaction with love life were significant predictors for university student's loneliness. Eros, Pragma, Mania, Storge and Agape love styles were not predictors.
Other factors may be accounting for the remaining variation in loneliness scores among university students.
According to the results of this research, satisfaction with one's love life, Ludus love styles are significant predictors of loneliness among university students. Loneliness and negative effects among university students can be exacerbated by a lack of emotions such as passion and a low level of satisfaction with love life.
However, it is important to remember that Palestinian university students are at risk of developing loneliness as a result of their poor living conditions in Palestine, which have been exacerbated by the Israeli occupation and insecure environment for a long time, even that the mean level of loneliness among the students are less than 40 on the UCLA scale, which have 20 items with score range of 20-80, higher score indicating a higher level of loneliness, that means the loneliness mean is almost low, so may that means they have high level of resilience to deal their life events. Students were more likely to be not lonely if they had a romantic relationship and felt as if they had satisfaction with their love life. As a result, more emphasis should be placed on promoting satisfaction with love life and love styles in order to reduce the levels of loneliness among university students (Al Khatib, 2012). In terms of university students' satisfaction with their love lives, it was a strong negative predictor of loneliness, meaning students who reported a high level of satisfaction with their love lives reported a lower level of loneliness (Nazzal, Cruz, & Neto, 2019). That is to say, if you are satisfied with your love life, it is a strong indication that you will enjoy your family, social relationships, and work, all of which have positive effects and reflect positively on mental health, and you will report less loneliness and other psychological problems.

Limitations and Implications
This study contributed to an increase of the understanding of loneliness and its association with love styles and satisfaction with love life among Palestinian university students. The results have implications for the decrease of university students' loneliness. Although the research has reached its aims there were some unavoidable limitations. First of all, data collection was conducted among university students at An-Najah national university during a short period of time in their classes. Some students became annoyed with the length of the questionnaires used in the study and found them difficult to answer by focusing on all items. Second, the sample was from only one university in Palestine, and although this is the larger one, might not represent the majority of the university students in Palestine Third, a qualitative study may be able to provide more information in the subject of loneliness and love styles, because this kind of study able to ask more direct questions about both loneliness and love styles which can be answering and discussion in different way. Fourth, loneliness, love and satisfaction with love life were measured at one time, that means may does not allow for examination the levels and patterns in loneliness love and satisfaction with love life. Finally, the questionnaires were designed to measure the students' loneliness, love styles and satisfaction with love life, and gives useful information about these subjects, especially love styles among university students, which have a few information in Palestine.
Even the students may make their real feeling and answers different from what they already answered. In spite of these limitations, the results of this study are suitable for use in research and social counseling with Palestinian university students.
The current study significantly added to the literature into essential ideas about the association between loneliness, love styles, and satisfaction with love life among Palestinian university students. It is possible to say that the current study findings about loneliness, love styles and satisfaction with love life improvement programs may have a preventive function if it applied by counseling services to the university students. Counsellors may teach the students useful social skills to increase the possibility of developing their relationships. By increasing the social activities, awareness programs and knowledge through training courses and educational lectures about nature of their relationships which may can increase the students' satisfaction and decrease loneliness.
More indicators of individual and social are required that will allow for more researches of the individual and cultural level of values and other variables on loneliness, love styles and satisfaction with love life among the Palestinian population. However, there is a scarcity of the studies in Palestinian society which is examining loneliness, love, and satisfaction with love life, and it will be useful to put a basic for another future research based on the current study results, that help the people how to respond to the loneliness. It will be also useful for the counselors and the psychologists by makes important interventions aimed at reducing loneliness and it is causes through improvement individual love attitudes and increasing satisfaction with love life. Future research needs to explain the reliability of Ludic love style according to gender differences in university students, which the current study found that males were more Ludic than females.

Funding
The authors have no funding to report.