The Experience of Loneliness and Coping Strategies of Senior Santri and Sufistic Therapy

Abstract

Chronic loneliness may lead to negative problems such as depression, anxiety, socialphobia, and other mental disorders. Loneliness in senior students is an interesting issue because at this point, a person experiences a throw-back in social interactions due to physical disability. Previous studies found that there was a desire for senior students to die in a state of “husnul khatimah” (peace) which was implemented with doing activities at Islamic boarding schools; on the other hand, they still wanted to be close to their families. This particularly encouraged researchers to know and describe the experience of loneliness, types of loneliness, causal factors, and coping strategies used by older adult students. This research is a phenomenological qualitative method with data collection techniques: interviews, observation, and documentation.The findings indicated that senior students not only wanted to deepen their religious knowledge, but they also wanted to be close to their loved ones. Even though they had a structured daily and weekly schedule, they still experienced loneliness such as emotional and social isolation. The cause of the loneliness of the senior students lay in situational factors. To overcome this feeling of loneliness, older adult students use emotional focused coping, problem focused coping, and positive religious coping strategies.