The Professional Counselor | Volume 13, Issue 1 51 Limitations and Future Research Though a robust study in terms of the number of participants, this study has several limitations that should be considered. Some of the data collection took place when the college pivoted to online learning and students had to stay home as a result of COVID-19. This time of forced social isolation could have impacted students’ responses. The cross-sectional design of this study is a limitation. Social self-efficacy and perception of loneliness were assessed at one point in time. Social self-efficacy and loneliness are complex constructs that can vary at different time points, so a longitudinal research design is an important next step. Furthermore, a longitudinal design would allow researchers to track changes over time and throughout students’ college experiences, noting changes as a student progresses developmentally. The self-report nature of the measurements and response bias are limitations that weaken the construct validity of the study. Self-report measures, though used extensively in research, are subject to respondent biases and social desirability (Crowne & Marlowe, 1964), which can limit self-awareness, self-knowledge, and self-report. The poor internal consistency reliability estimates of the SSES in this study is another limitation that might indicate that the SSES failed to capture stability of test scores within our sample. Future researchers may consider using other measures of social self-efficacy. Although the mediation model provides explanatory effect of social self-efficacy on attachment and loneliness, future studies should examine other related factors such as self-esteem, empathy, or personality traits like Myers-Briggs or the Big Five personality traits. Additionally, the attachment measure was retrospective in nature, and participants were instructed to consider their feelings about close relationships in general rather than on a specific relationship on the Experiences in Close Relationships—Relationship Structures Questionnaire. In retrospect, it might have been more beneficial to have them consider specific relationships at college. Conclusion This study further expanded the research on the impact of insecure attachment as a contributor to feelings of loneliness. Further, our study pointed to social self-efficacy as a possible mediator for this relationship. Although attachment styles may be difficult to change, enhancing mediators like social self-efficacy might help individuals with insecure attachment styles to reduce loneliness (Thomas et al., 2020). Helping individuals with insecure attachment styles learn new skills to enhance their interpersonal and intrapersonal skills might enhance their beliefs in others and possibly bolster their self-confidence and competence. In the college setting, enhancing insecure attachment styles may have long-term consequences on reducing feelings of loneliness and may contribute to a sense of belonging and increase retention rates and academic success. Conflict of Interest and Funding Disclosure The authors reported no conflict of interest or funding contributions for the development of this manuscript.
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