The Relationship of Self-Disclosure, Interpersonal Dependency, and Life Changes to Loneliness in Young Adults

Abstract

Using a sample of 209 volunteer students between the ages of 18 and 25 from an urban university, the relationships between self-disclosure, interpersonal dependency, life changes, and loneliness were studied. Respondents completed the Jourard 40-Item Self-Disclosure Questionnaire, the Interpersonal Dependency Inventory, the Recent Life Change Questionnaire, and the revised UCLA Loneliness Scale. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients and multiple regression analysis were used to test the hypotheses. Hypotheses were supported predicting an inverse relationship between self-disclosure and loneliness (p less than .005) and a positive relationship between interpersonal dependency and loneliness (p less than .005). However, a positive relationship between life changes and loneliness was not supported. Data also supported the hypothesis that self-disclosure, interpersonal dependency, and life changes would account for greater variance in loneliness than any single variable alone (F(3,204 = 14.433), p less than .01). From a stepwise multiple regression analysis, self-disclosure and interpersonal dependency together accounted for 17.4 percent of the variance in loneliness. Implications for nursing practice are discussed with particular emphasis on potential strategies for preventing loneliness.