Abstract
The current study examines the relationship between prolonged loneliness, physical health, and sleep among young adolescents (10–13 years; N = 1214; 53% girls). Loneliness was measured at 10, 12 and 13 years of age along with parent-reported health and sleep outcomes. Using growth mixture modelling, 6 distinct trajectories were identified: ‘low increasing to high loneliness’ (n = 23, 2%), ‘high reducing loneliness’ (n = 28, 3%), ‘medium stable loneliness’ (n = 60, 5%), ‘medium reducing loneliness’ (n = 185, 15%), ‘low increasing to medium loneliness’ (n = 165, 14%), and ‘low stable loneliness’ (n = 743, 61%). Further analyses found non-significant differences between the loneliness trajectories and parent-report health and sleep outcomes including visits to health professionals, perceived general health, and sleep quality. The current study offers an important contribution to the literature on loneliness and health. Results show that the relationship may not be evident in early adolescence when parent reports of children’s health are used. The current study highlights the importance of informant choice when reporting health. The implications of the findings for future empirical work are discussed.
Highlights
The current study examined the presence of groups of adolescents who followed distinct trajectories of loneliness from ages 10–13 years, with the aim of exploring the prospective link between prolonged loneliness and physical health and sleep outcomes among youth
We controlled for the impact of early family income, as a known predictor of poor health outcomes among adolescence and for earlier reports of poor health, exploring loneliness as a unique predictor of poor health and inadequate sleep
We found six distinct trajectories of loneliness—‘Low Increasing to Medium’, ‘Medium Reducing’, ‘High Reducing’, ‘Low’, ‘Low Increasing to High’ and ‘Medium Stable’—but there was no support for the hypothesis that increasing or maintained loneliness was related to poorer health outcomes as reported by the mother
Summary
Highlights ● Six distinct trajectories of loneliness were identified in a large, representative sample. ● Novel examination of loneliness and parent-reported sleep and health outcomes. ● Highlights the importance of measurement and informant choice for future work. 1234567890();,: 1234567890();,: Loneliness is a negative emotional state caused by a discrepancy between a person’s desired and actual social relationships (Peplau and Perlman 1982). Loneliness is related, but distinct from social isolation (Smith and Victor 2019); it is characterised by dissatisfaction with current
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