Feeling insignificant, hopeless, and unkind to oneself: lessons learned from lonely young adults during pandemic times

The current study investigated the construct of anti-mattering (feeling insignificant and invisible) and its links with loneliness and anxiety during times of pandemic social restrictions and isolation. Importantly, it also examined how levels of anti-mattering relate to levels of domain-specific measures of social hopelessness and social self-compassion. We assessed 282 undergraduate students during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants completed the Anti-Mattering Scale (AMS), the UCLA Loneliness Scale, pandemic-specific measures of anxiety and worry, and measures of social self-compassion, hope, hopelessness, and social hopelessness. Anti-mattering scores were associated with lower levels of social self-compassion and hope and higher levels of hopelessness and social hopelessness. Regression analyses showed loneliness was predicted by anti-mattering, social hopelessness, and reduced hope. The findings suggest that young people who feel both lonely and insignificant are particularly vulnerable to failing to see a better tomorrow. Furthermore, results suggest when people feel their voices are unheard, they also have a tendency to harden themselves against compassion. The findings are poignantly relevant to discussions of alienation and aspects of loneliness when one's future seems bleak. Potential clinical and community health implications are discussed regarding the relevance of alleviating distressing feelings of personal insignificance beyond the period of pandemic times.