‘It’s a problem of the politics, not the place’: A participatory study of young people’s experiences of community belonging and loneliness in a coastal town.

Abstract

Current research suggests that where young people live can be related to their experiences of loneliness. However, the evidence for why this is and what young people themselves think about it is limited. Sense of place, defined by both the physical environment and social and cultural aspects of communities, is related to belonging. However, when a community and a place is stigmatised, a tension can exist between ‘feeling’ this stigma and the sense of belonging and attachment to where one is from. Social connections are important to understanding loneliness; strong community connections and a sense of belonging can improve individual outcomes, including reducing loneliness.

This PhD research examined how young people living in the unique environment of a coastal community experience loneliness and how sense of place and belonging to the
community affects these experiences. Knowledge about young people’s experiences of loneliness was generated from participatory research with young people living in the
coastal town of Morecambe, where the relationships between these concepts was explored.

Twenty two young people, aged 13-24, participated in research sessions which took place at their local youth groups. Sessions consisted of engagement activities such as
quizzes and games and three main creative methods were used to generate the data: 1) maps of the local area were used to explore perceptions of different spaces (Seyer-
Ochi, 2006); 2) photovoice was used to examine sense of place through the eyes of young people (Wang & Burris, 1997); and 3) the Splot drawing method (Tolstad et al.,,2017) was adopted to explore their sense of belonging. Data generated included transcripts of group discussions, maps, pictures, photos and other creative outputs that.were thematically analysed with a Young Researchers Group, formed from 13 young people who took part in the data collection.

Key findings included how young people’s perceptions of place were in tension, evidenced through their contrasting experiences of place, as well as themes related to economic exclusion, threat and shame. The variations in young people’s relationship with community were explored, with inconsistencies in when and where they feel belonging apparent, as well as an important finding related to how young people, conceptualise community and the language they use to describe it. Lastly, the different intrinsic and extrinsic factors of loneliness offer subjective insights into young people’s experiences of loneliness with increasing accessibility of mental health support and educational inputs about loneliness proposed as potential supportive measures.

This thesis reveals that young people’s perceptions of the coastal place in which they live is shaped by different socio-environmental factors, including the stigmatisation of place by outside entities. This subsequently has implications for how they experience belonging to geographical communities and to whether they feel lonely. A place-based stigma loneliness model is proposed which offers an approach to understand how these different dimensions interact and impact on whether young people feel lonely. The thesis concludes by reflecting on the implications of this study for future research about young people’s experiences of loneliness and the importance of the physical contexts in which they live their lives.