Examining the role of social isolation and parasocial interaction among university students in the context of COVID-19 : Focusing on the sense of departmental belonging and intention to continue education

Abstract

The universities in Korea have experienced unprecedented and radical changes, such as campus closure and expansion of online-classes, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many university students have experienced social isolation and a lack of social interactions on campus. There has been little research thoroughly analyzing the potential effects of social isolation on university students. Therefore, this present research aimed to examine the potential negative impact of social isolation on university students in the COVID-19 context. Particularly, this research analyzed how social isolation affected university students’ sesnses of departmental belonging and intentions of education continuance. In addition, this study focused on the effects of parasocial interaction with preferred instructors on university students as they have experienced interactions with those instructors through