Living alone and adult loneliness: The buffering role of neighbourhood social interaction and attachment.

BackgroundThere is a growing importance of loneliness measurement through valid and reliable instruments. However, to establish valid and reliable measures, there is a need to explore their psychometric properties in different research settings and language environments. For this reason, this study aimed to validate the Three Item Loneliness Scale (TILS) in the Czech Republic within a Slavonic language environment.MethodsA sample of Czech adults (n = 3236) was used consisting primarily of university students. We utilized Classical Test Theory to assess TILS internal consistency, temporal stability, and factor structure. Item Response Theory (IRT) was used to estimate Differential Item Functioning (DIF), the discrimination and difficulty of the TILS items and to estimate the measurement precision of the whole scale. Construct validity was explored through the Spearman correlation coefficient using personality traits, depression, and anxiety.ResultsThe results showed satisfactory reliability and validity of the TILS in the Czech Republic. The scale’s internal consistency and temporal stability were found to be satisfactory (Cronbach’s α = 0.81, McDonald’s ω = 0.82, ICC = 0.71). The parallel analysis supported the unidimensionality of the TILS. The IRT results indicated that the highest measurement precision was reached in individuals with lower and above-average levels of loneliness. Significant correlations between the TILS scores, anxiety, depression, and personality traits supported the construct validity of the scale. Although the DIF analysis identified statistically significant differences in responses to items TILS_2 and TILS_3 based on education level and employment status (with no significant differences observed for TILS_1), the effect sizes of these differences were small. This indicates that, despite statistical significance, the practical impact on the scale’s validity across these groups is minimal.ConclusionsThe validated TILS provides a reliable and valid tool for assessing loneliness in the Czech Republic. Its brevity makes it a practical option for researchers and clinicians seeking to measure loneliness time-efficiently. Future studies should explore how adding new items could increase the measurement precision of the TILS.

Many studies have examined the impact of social factors on neighbourhood attachment. However, more studies need to be on the mediating effect of the sense of belonging in a built environment. This study aims to investigate its mediating role in the relationship between social factors and neighbourhood attachment in two neighbourhoods in Penang Island, Malaysia. A sample of 362 residents was requested to answer a questionnaire survey with a Likert scale to measure the residents' assessment of social factors, neighbourhood attachment level and sense of belonging. Neighbourhood attachment is a second-order factor structure assessed by a first-order factor structure that includes place dependence and social bonding. The social factor is also a second-order construct with two dimensions: social trust and social support. The findings were then analysed by structural equation modelling. These results support the theoretical findings in the literature that social factors significantly affect the sense of belonging and neighbourhood attachment. The results also support the mediating role of a sense of belonging in the relationship between social factors and neighbourhood attachment. Fostering social trust and support within neighbourhoods is crucial for promoting neighbourhood attachment. This can be achieved through community-building activities and community-shared places. By fostering social trust and support, neighbourhoods can become vibrant, thriving communities where individuals feel a sense of belonging and connection.

This research had two primary objectives: 1) to broaden the sociological construct of community attachment to incorporate both social and natural environment dimensions of attachment, and 2) to examine how variations in attachment relate to two dimensions of well‐being in natural amenity‐rich rural communities. The specific dimensions of well‐being measured are two important factors identified in previous research—collective action and perceptions of open communication. Factor analysis of fourteen measures of attachment indicated social attachment and attachment to the natural environment are distinct dimensions of the broader concept of community attachment. Participation in collective action and perceptions of open communication within a respondent's community explained only a small portion of the variance in levels of both social and natural environment attachment. Religious affiliation and length of residence were strongly associated with social attachment, supporting findings from previous empirical work. However, length of residence and religious affiliation were not statistically associated with levels of attachment to the natural environment, further reinforcing the distinction between the two dimensions of attachment.

During the last decade, academic interest in residents' participation in maintaining the quality of life in distressed urban areas has risen. Many articles seeking to explain why people participate relate the social networks dimension of social capital to participation. However, according to Putnam's definition of social capital, not only social networks, but also norms and trust give people the tools they need for participation. Other authors concentrate on the relationship between neighbourhood attachment and participation. However, an empirical analysis in which both factors are combined is lacking. This paper describes the combined effect of social capital together with neighbourhood attachment in explaining participation. The findings show that participation is greater for residents with social networks in the neighbourhood, who reject deviant behaviour, and have a stronger neighbourhood attachment. Trust in authorities was not found to have any statistically significant impact on participation. The conclusions underline the theoretical assumption that social capital and neighbourhood attachment form a useful pair of concepts in explaining participation, because they focus not only on what people have, but also on their mindsets.

The social participation and integration of older adults are important aspects of healthy aging. However, in general, older adults have smaller social networks than their younger counterparts due to changes in their life cycle stage, such as retirement or age-related losses, along with a declining health and increasing mobility limitations. Consequently, with increasing age, an increasing proportion of older people experience feelings of loneliness and social isolation. Previous studies that have analyzed the relationships between loneliness, social networks, and the living environment have often been based on bivariate relationships or included only a limited number of variables. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze multiple relationships in a more comprehensive framework. Data were collected using a survey among 182 adults aged 65 years and over in the Netherlands. A Bayesian belief network (BBN) modeling approach was used that derives all direct and indirect relationships between the variables. The results showed that feelings of loneliness are directly related to satisfaction with one’s social network and neighborhood attachment and are indirectly related to perceived safety and satisfaction with local amenities and services. This knowledge is relevant to urban planners and policy makers who focus on creating livable and healthy social neighborhoods for the aging population.

Loneliness is a common social phenomenon across countries with negative effects in health. Thus, the measurement of loneliness is of paramount importance. The Three-Item Loneliness Scale (TILS) was designed to be used in large-population surveys as a quick measure of loneliness. The aim of this study is to provide a Spanish validation of the TILS. A representative sample of the Spanish population (N = 1951) was used. We analysed the psychometric properties, factor structure, and distribution demographics characteristics of the Spanish TILS. Analyses showed differences regarding age, gender, educational level, employment status, household composition and annual gross income in line with previous literature. The confirmatory factor analysis revealed a unifactorial structure, with significant moderate correlations between the TILS and depression, anxiety, paranoia and well-being, and mild significant correlations with belongingness and mistrust. The internal consistency of the Spanish TILS was good (α = 0.82). Our study indicates that the TILS is a valid and reliable measure of loneliness in the Spanish population. Loneliness is a modern epidemic and a precursor of mental and health problems that reduced the quality of life. Therefore, it is important to have reliable measures of this phenomenon.

The moderating effect of frailty on the network of depression, anxiety, and loneliness in community-dwelling older adults.

This study aims to evaluate the directionality of the association between loneliness and cognitive performance in older adults, accounting for confounding factors. Data were from 55,662 adults aged ≥ 50 years who participated in Waves 5-8 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Loneliness was assessed with the Three-Item Loneliness Scale (TILS) and with a one-item direct question. Cognitive performance was assessed with four measures: verbal fluency, numeracy, immediate recall, and delayed recall. Age, sex, geographical area, educational attainment, partnership status, depressive symptoms, and previous chronic diseases at baseline were used as covariates. We analyzed the associations with three-wave random intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPM) and conducted age-stratified analysis among those younger versus older than 65 years. Full information maximum likelihood estimators were used to handle missing values in Waves 6-8 in the main analyses. We also conducted additional sensitivity analyses stratified by retirement status (retired vs. not) at baseline. At the within-person level, loneliness and cognitive performance were not associated with each other among those aged 50-64 years in the main time-lagged analysis. Among those aged ≥ 65 years, loneliness was associated with lower cognitive performance in the next wave in all four cognitive domains. In addition, lower verbal fluency predicted greater loneliness in the next waves among this age group. Similar patterns were found independently of retirement status at baseline. These results suggest that loneliness is a psychosocial risk factor for cognitive decline among older adults (≥ 65 years). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Approximately 10% of young people 'often' feel lonely, with loneliness being predictive of multiple physical and mental health problems. Research has found CBT to be effective for reducing loneliness in adults, but interventions for young people who report loneliness as their primary difficulty are lacking. CBT for Chronic Loneliness in Young People was developed as a modular intervention. This was evaluated in a single-case experimental design (SCED) with seven participants aged 11-18 years. The primary outcome was self-reported loneliness on the Three-Item Loneliness Scale. Secondary outcomes were self-reported loneliness on the UCLA-LS-3, and self- and parent-reported RCADS and SDQ impact scores. Feasibility and participant satisfaction were also assessed. At post-intervention, there was a 66.41% reduction in loneliness, with all seven participants reporting a significant reduction on the primary outcome measure (p < .001). There was also a reduction on the UCLA-LS-3 of a large effect (d = 1.53). Reductions of a large effect size were also found for parent-reported total RCADS (d = 2.19) and SDQ impact scores (d = 2.15) and self-reported total RCADS scores (d = 1.81), with a small reduction in self-reported SDQ impact scores (d = 0.41). Participants reported high levels of satisfaction, with the protocol being feasible and acceptable. We conclude that CBT for Chronic Loneliness in Young People may be an effective intervention for reducing loneliness and co-occurring mental health difficulties in young people. The intervention should now be evaluated further through a randomised controlled trial (RCT).

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to examine the correlates of juvenile attitudes toward the police in the Chinese setting. It borrows from the prevailing criminological wisdom developed in the West and Confucian philosophical doctrines to shed light on how attachment to social institutions helps explain variation in juvenile sentiments of the police. Method: The data were collected from a sample of 2,679 high school students in a southwestern Chinese city. A second-order latent variable labeled social attachment is constructed and comprised of three lower order factors representing family attachment, neighborhood attachment, and school attachment. Traditional demographic background, victimization, and contact with the police variables commonly used in U.S. studies are included in the analysis. Structural equation modeling is employed to test hypothesized relationships among explanatory variables and juvenile attitudes toward the police. Results: The findings suggest that the higher order factor social attachment is the most robust predictor of juvenile evaluations of the police in China. Other commonly used demographic, socioeconomic, and police contact factors show limited utility. Conclusion: The findings lend support to propositions derived from the Western criminological theories and the eastern philosophical doctrine to a major extent. Both confirmations of expected findings and noteworthy surprises are discussed.

As in many other cities, the Belgian city of Ghent regularly carries out urban redevelopment projects to attract middle class inhabitants and investors to its urban core. This urban renewal can cause gentrification, the revival of socially deprived neighbourhoods combined with a population shift from primarily low income to mainly middle class households. This article aims to examine which Ghent neighbourhoods have experienced gentrification between 2005 and 2012 and whether this shift has influenced the social cohesion within the area. Through the use of multilevel modelling, two possible indirect effects of gentrification are explored: the first through increased neighbourhood social mix, the second through improved neighbourhood socioeconomic status (data retrieved from the Ghent Liveability Monitor 2013 and the Ghent Neighbourhood Monitor). Social cohesion is measured as social capital and neighbourhood attachment. Results show that age, income and type of residency are key determinants of social cohesion at the individual level. At the neighbourhood level, gentrification is found to have a positive effect on both social capital and neighbourhood attachment. No indirect effect of social mix is found, neither can the effect of gentrification be ascribed solely to diminished neighbourhood deprivation. Rather, deprivation suppresses the positive effect of gentrification. This study concludes that many policy makers correctly assume that gentrification will benefit social cohesion, but mistakenly ascribe this effect to increased social mix or fully to enhanced SES of the neighbourhood. Gentrification in Ghent also shows a direct effect on social cohesion which has not yet been explained in previous studies.

Loneliness in adults awaiting liver transplantation at 7 U.S. transplant centers

This paper investigates the relationship between perceived ethnic, age and income diversity and neighbourhood attachment, accounting for measures of objective diversity calculated for small, individualised neighbourhoods. With data from Warsaw in Poland, we examine whether neighbourhood ties with people of different ethnicity, age and income moderate the relationship between perceived diversity and attachment. We also test affective appraisals of the environment (excitement and irritation) as a mediator between perceived diversity and attachment. Perceived ethnic diversity was positively related to neighbourhood attachment, and this link was mediated by the emotion of excitement. Perceived income diversity undermined attachment regardless of the neighbourhood ties, and this link was not mediated by affective appraisals. Perceived age diversity was related to lower neighbourhood attachment only for individuals who had few ties with neighbours of different ages. We argue that the effects of diversity may depend on the socio‐cultural context, specifically on the level and meaning of diversity in a given society.

Various groups have called for a national system to monitor the quality of cancer care. The validity of cancer registry data for quality of cancer care has not been well studied. We investigated the validity of such information in the California Cancer Registry. We compared registry data associated with care with data abstracted from the medical records of patients diagnosed with breast cancer. We also calculated a quality score for each subject by determining the proportion of four evidence-based quality indicators that were met and then compared overall quality scores obtained from registry and medical record data. All statistical tests were two-sided. Records of 304 patients were studied. Compared with the medical record data gold standard, the accuracy of registry data was higher for hospital-based services (sensitivity = 95.0% for mastectomy, 94.9% for lumpectomy, and 95.9% for lymph node dissection) than for ambulatory services (sensitivity = 9.8% for biopsy, 72.2% for radiation therapy, 55.6% for chemotherapy, and 36.2% for hormone therapy). On average, quality scores calculated from registry data were 11 percentage points (95% confidence interval [CI] = 9 to 13 percentage points, P<.001) lower than those calculated from medical record data. Quality scores calculated from registry data were 5 percentage points (95% CI = 3 to 7 percentage points) lower for patients with stage I breast cancer, 16 percentage points (95% CI = 12 to 20 percentage points) lower for patients with stage II breast cancer, and 20 percentage points (95% CI = 8 to 32 percentage points) lower for patients with stage III breast cancer than were corresponding scores calculated from medical record data (all P<.001). The greater difference in quality scores for stage II and III patients revealed that disease severity and setting of care affected the validity of registry data. Cancer registry data for quality measurement may not be valid for all care settings, but registries could provide the infrastructure for collecting data on the quality of cancer care. We urge that funding be increased to augment data collection by cancer registries.

Forest bathing as a recreation activity may connect to experiences of social support, activity attachment, and purpose in life (PIL) among older adults. However, it is unclear whether activity attachment mediates the relationship between social support and PIL experienced by older forest bathers. To address this area of limited research, we examined such a mediated relationship in this population. In total, 292 older forest bathers completed a survey including measures of social support, activity attachment, and PIL. We performed structural equation modeling to analyze data. Results indicated that high levels of social support predicted high levels of activity attachment; high levels of activity attachment predicted high levels of PIL; and high levels of social support predicted high levels of PIL. Therefore, it is advantageous to create contexts and situations conducive for forest bathing to develop social support when practitioners attempt to help older adults foster activity attachment and PIL.