Parental Antecedents of Children's Loneliness

Abstract

Interest in children's and adolescents' loneliness has increased dramatically over the past two decades (see the introductory chapter, this volume). One facet of loneliness that has received some attention is the parental antecedents of children's loneliness. This refers to parents' affective states and behavior that affect their children's loneliness; it is the topic covered by this chapter. I discuss how parents' loneliness, warmth, involvement, and promotion of peer relationships potentially affect their children's loneliness. Unless required, I use the term children to refer to both children and adolescents in this chapter. Although the focus is on how parents affect their children's loneliness, this chapter is guided by the understanding that the relationship between parents and children is a reciprocal one (see Barnes & Olson, 1985; Bell, 1968; Belsky, 1981). Research indicates that infants' temperament affects how parents interact with their infants (i.e., Crockenberg, 1981; Thompson, Connell, & Bridges, 1988), and children's behavioral styles affect their parents' reactions to the children (Keller & Bell, 1977; Steinberg, 1987; Teyber, Messe, & Stollak, 1977). There is, of course, an extensive body of research that has documented the likely effects of parents' affect and behavior on their offspring (see Darling & Steinberg, 1993). Given that children's affective states and behavior affect, and are affected by, their parents' affective states and behavior, it seems reasonable to expect that children's loneliness is a product of complex reciprocal interactions between them and their parents. There are various ways that loneliness has been defined and assessed, as indicated by Terrell-Deutsch's chapter in this volume.