Parental Loneliness Research Articles

Loneliness in Pregnancy and Parenthood: Impacts, Outcomes, and Costs.

Background: Becoming a parent has been highlighted as a period associated with increased risks for loneliness, with around one-third of parents reporting feeling lonely often or always. However, as most understanding of loneliness is based on elderly or student cohorts, further insights into the costs of parental loneliness is needed. Method: We conducted a literature review of impacts of loneliness in pregnancy and parenthood and present a synthesis of the health, social, societal, and economic costs. We draw on evidence about impacts and costs of loneliness in other cohorts to help provide a wider context to understand the impacts and costs and how parental loneliness differs from other populations. Results: Similar to literature with elderly cohorts, parental loneliness has impacts on health and wellbeing, such as depression in new parents and increased general practitioner (GP) visits in pregnancy. But also has intergenerational impacts via its association with poor mental health and social competence and increased respiratory tract infections in the child. Physical health impacts widely associated with loneliness in other cohorts have yet to be examined in parents. Loneliness in parents is likely to result in social withdrawal further isolating parents and wider societal and economic costs relating to absence from employment and informal caring roles. Conclusion: Parental loneliness has the potential for negative and pervasive impacts. As parental loneliness has wide ranging and intergenerational impacts it is important that a multi-sectoral perspective is used when examining its costs.

Assessment of Parental Needs and Quality of Life in Children with a Rare Neuromuscular Disease (Pompe Disease): A Quantitative-Qualitative Study.

Pompe disease (PD) is a rare metabolic disorder with progressive neuromuscular consequences that negatively impact a child's development and quality of life (QoL). Despite an improved prognosis with treatment, the risk for early death due cardiorespiratory crisis remains. Parents not only face physical fatigue and family distress in coping with the child's special needs but also experience emotions, worries, and unexpressed needs (a "humanistic burden") that require supportive interventions. Fourteen parents of children with PD completed an online self-report questionnaire assessing their child's QoL, their own parental burden of care, and disease-related issues. The aim was to estimate the associations between the child's QoL and the caregiver's burden levels. Three mothers were also interviewed. A total of 57.1% of parents lived with moderate/severe burden conditions; worse QoL for the child was associated with higher levels of caregiver burden (rS[N = 14] = -0.67, p < 0.01). Uncertainty about the child's future was a state commonly described by mothers. However, the child's resilience, normalization of disease, and coping strategies (primarily positive appraisal and focusing on the present) alleviated suffering and helped mothers maintain family functioning. Finally, dissatisfaction with communication in relationships with professionals emerged. In conclusion, a typical pediatric palliative care approach is recommended since it manages to guarantee parents empathetic and supportive communication from healthcare professionals, alleviating feelings of isolation and loneliness in parents.

Parental loneliness, perceptions of parenting, and psychosocial factors among parents having new children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Individuals who had new children during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic became parents in challenging situations, starting from pregnancy and continuing to after birth. This study aimed to clarify the characteristics of parental loneliness, perceptions of parenting, and psychosocial factors among parents having new children during the COVID-19 pandemic. The participants comprised a first-child group (523 parents; those who had their first child) and a second-child group (621 parents; those who had their second or subsequent child). We used web-based questionnaires to explore parental loneliness, perceptions of parenting, and psychosocial factors (distress, parental burnout, well-being, marital satisfaction, and social isolation). Participants answered the questionnaires in November 2022, during the eighth COVID-19 wave in Japan. We compared the groups and subgroups according to parental sex and determined the relationship between variables. The parents in the first-child group felt lonelier than the parents in the second-child group (p < 0.05), and their loneliness was correlated with psychosocial factors. Significantly, more mothers in the second-child group answered "agree" to negative perceptions of parenting than mothers in the first-child group. Additionally, parenting difficulties were correlated with a negative perception of parenting and parental burnout in both groups. Furthermore, providing parental support may improve parenting and promote parents' health.

Parental loneliness, parental stress and child mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: Variations by cumulative socioeconomic risk.

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised concerns about parent and child mental health, especially within disadvantaged families. However, little is known about how parental stress and loneliness during the pandemic influenced their children and no studies have investigated if these associations could vary by socioeconomic status. In July to September 2021, a large representative sample of parents (N=4,524) in Québec (Canada) reported on aspects of their own mental health and that of their 9-10 year old child. Outcome variables were child externalizing and internalizing symptoms. Exposure variables were changes in parental loneliness and parental stress since the onset of the pandemic. The moderator variable was cumulative socioeconomic risk. Multiple linear regression analyses were executed and adjusted for confounding factors. Child internalizing symptoms were associated with higher levels of parental stress (β=0.14, p<.001) and loneliness (β=0.23, p<.001). Child externalizing symptoms were also associated with parental stress (β=0.13, p<.001) and loneliness (β=0.18, p<.001). Most of these associations were stronger within the most disadvantaged households. The cross-sectional design does not allow interpretations about causality. Increases in parental stress and loneliness since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic would be detrimental to parent and child mental health. As these issues were amplified within families experiencing more socioeconomic adversities, our results can inform public policy to support families in times of crisis and direct resources to those most in need.

Exploring blog narratives of parental loneliness: A thematic network analysis

UK-based national surveys and international longitudinal studies have shown that around a third of parents experience chronic or persistent loneliness. There is limited research about the experience of loneliness in parenthood, however blogs authored by parents, sharing their personal experiences about loneliness offer a potential rich data source. The purpose of this study was to identify and analyse blog narratives written by parents who had experienced loneliness to increase understanding of their experiences. One hundred and ninety-six relevant blog posts were identified, of which 157 had contact details to request permission to use the blog post in the study. Twenty-two parent bloggers gave their permission. Thematic network analysis was used to open code the blogs and 4 organising themes and subthemes emerged, which centred on a global theme of disconnection. Disconnection underpinned themes relating to a sense that being a parent was overwhelming, changes in identity linked to becoming a parent, difficulties in sharing feelings of loneliness with others, and a need for social connection. Findings point to parents being unprepared for the transition to parenthood, with implications for perinatal education and support, including further opportunities for parents to connect to reduce social isolation.

Loneliness in pregnant and postpartum people and parents of children aged 5 years or younger: a scoping review

BackgroundDespite evidence that loneliness increases during times of transition, and that the incidence of loneliness is highest in young adults, loneliness during pregnancy and new parenthood has not been developed as a program of research. Because loneliness research has primarily focused on older adults and other high-risk populations, the concept of loneliness and its effects on this population are not well understood, leaving a gap in our understanding of the psychosocial needs and health risks of loneliness on pregnant people and new parents. A scoping review has been completed in order to map and synthesize the literature on loneliness experienced during pregnancy and the first 5 years of parenthood prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsTo address the aim of this review, a wide net was cast in order to detect experiences of perinatal or parental loneliness and/or instances where loneliness was measured in this population. Among the inclusion criteria were loneliness in people who were pregnant, who were parents in the postpartum period, or who had children aged 5 years or younger. A search for literature was conducted in December 2020 using nine databases: MEDLINE (Ovid), EMBASE (Elsevier), SCOPUS (Elsevier), Cochrane Library including CENTRAL (Wiley), CINAHL (Ebscohost), PsycINFO (Ebscohost), Dissertations & Theses Global (ProQuest) and Sociological s (ProQuest), and the Web of Science Core Collection (Clarivate).ResultsPerinatal and parental loneliness studies are limited and have rarely been targeted and developed through a program of research. Loneliness inquiry in this population was frequently studied in relation to other concepts of interest (e.g., postpartum depression). Alternatively, the importance of loneliness emerged from study participants as relevant to the research topic during qualitative inquiry. Across studies, the prevalence of loneliness ranged from 32 to 100%. Loneliness was commonly experienced alongside parenting difficulties, with parents feeling as though they were alone in their struggles.ConclusionsAs loneliness has been called a sensitive indicator of mental wellbeing, we believe screening will help healthcare professionals identify common difficulties and early signs of depression experienced during pregnancy and parenthood.Systematic review registrationThe protocol is available on Open Science Framework at DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/BFVPZ.

Experiences of Parents of Students with Learning Disabilities in Elementary Schools in Lordegan, Iran, in 2020

Background and Objective: Children's learning has always been regarded as an important issue that determines the educational destiny of children in the future and can confuse teachers and parents. Therefore, this study aimed to explain the experiences of parents of students with learning disabilities in elementary schools in Lordegan, Iran, in 2020. Materials and Methods: This qualitative study was conducted using a phenomenological approach. The study sample included mothers of children with learning disabilities in Lordegan who were selected using the convenience sampling method. The unstructured and in-depth interviews were conducted on 12 mothers until the information saturation stage was reached. The data were analyzed using Colaizzi's method and identification of the main and sub-concepts. Results: The number of participants in the study was 12 (three men and nine females) and they were in the age range of 27-83 years. One of the participants was a widow and the rest were married. The initial code 1027 was obtained after Interviews in the form of 10 main concepts of parental loneliness with five sub-concepts, parental mental imbalance and aggression with six sub-concepts, feelings of failure and depression with six sub-concepts, parental involvement and follow-up with nine sub-concepts, parental effort and learning disability with 17 sub-concepts, financial problems and lack of cooperation of respective institutions with nine sub-concepts, community support with seven sub-concepts, physical and mental problems of the child with eight sub-concepts, concern for the future of the child with eight sub-concepts, and teacher influence with two sub-concepts. Conclusion: Based on the obtained results, parents of children with learning disabilities feel lonely, their mental balance is disturbed, and they become aggressive and feel broken and depressed. In this regard, parents' participation and persistence, parents' efforts, the economic problems, and the lack of cooperation of the responsible institutions are quite obvious. Therefore, the parents of children with disabilities need various supports from the society and the educational system, and the necessity of all around support for these families is an inevitable reality that should not be ignored.

A longitudinal study of the impact of parental loneliness on adolescents' online game addiction: The mediating roles of adolescents’ social skill deficits and loneliness

This study longitudinally examined the predictors and mediators of adolescents' online game addiction. Apropos this, the questions of whether parental loneliness at T1 predicts adolescents' online game addiction at T3 and whether adolescents' social skill deficits and loneliness at T2 mediate in this relationship, were investigated. Panel data were collected from three waves of the Game User Panel: W2 (T1: 2015), W3 (T2: 2016), and W4 (T3: 2017). The study sample comprised 336 parent–adolescent dyads. First, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that parental loneliness is positively and significantly linked with adolescents' online game addiction two years later. Second, the results of the structural equation modeling, using the serial mediation plugin, showed that adolescents' loneliness at T2 significantly mediates the association between parental loneliness at T1 and adolescents' online game addiction at T3; however, social skill deficits at T2 do not mediate that relationship. Moreover, adolescents' social skill deficits and loneliness at T2 serially mediate the relationship between parental loneliness at T1 and adolescents' online game addiction at T3. These findings indicate that parental loneliness could be a risk factor for adolescents’ online game addictions, and provide new information regarding potential mechanisms in this relationship.

Experiencing loneliness in parenthood: a scoping review.

Aims:Chronic loneliness is experienced by around a third of parents, but there is no comprehensive review into how, why and which parents experience loneliness. This scoping review aimed to provide insight into what is already known about parental loneliness and give directions for further applied and methodological research.Methods:Searches for peer-reviewed articles were undertaken in six databases: PsycINFO, Medline, CINAHL, Embase, Web of Science and Scopus, during May 2019 to February 2020. We searched for English studies which examined loneliness experienced during parenthood, including studies that involved parents with children under 16 years and living at home and excluding studies on pregnancy, childbirth or postbirth hospital care.Results:From 2566 studies retrieved, 133 were included for analysis. Most studies (n = 80) examined the experience of loneliness in specific groups of parents, for example, teenage parents, parents of a disabled child. Other studies examined theoretical issues (n = 6) or health and wellbeing impacts on parents (n = 16) and their offspring (n = 17). There were 14 intervention studies with parents that measured loneliness as an outcome. Insights indicate that parental loneliness may be different to loneliness experienced in other cohorts. There is evidence that parental loneliness has direct and intergenerational impacts on parent and child mental health. Some parents (e.g. with children with chronic illness or disability, immigrant or ethnic minority parents) also appear to be at increased risk of loneliness although evidence is not conclusive.Conclusion:This work has identified key gaps with further international, comparative and conceptual research needed.

The intergenerational transmission of loneliness between parents and their adult children

Objective: This study examined the relationship between loneliness in parents and in their adult children, and took into account the role of gender differences in the intergenerational transmission of loneliness.&#x0D; Background: Although it is well documented that loneliness has negative effects on a person’s physical and mental health, only a relatively small number of empirical studies have investigated the intergenerational transmission of loneliness between parents and their children, including the potential long-term effects of transmission processes. Moreover, the findings of the few existing studies have been inconsistent and contradictory, particularly with regard to gender differences.&#x0D; Method: The statistical analysis drew on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP). Based on data from 2013 and 2017, stepwise multilevel linear regression models were estimated for 4,457 respondents between the ages of 18 and 40 and their parents.&#x0D; Results: Significant associations were found between loneliness in parents and in their adult children. The analysis also revealed that the relationship between loneliness in mothers and in their children did not depend on whether mothers and children were living in the same household. However, no significant differences were found between same-sex and opposite-sex parent-child dyads.&#x0D; Conclusion: This study provided moderate evidence for the intergenerational transmission of loneliness between parents and their adult children, as well as indirect evidence for the long-term effects of transmission processes between mothers and children.

Perinatal loss and parental loneliness: Narratives of late termination of pregnancy

Advances in perinatal medicine, present increasing numbers of women with difficult decisions about their pregnancy. We explored the views of 5 parents and 5 perinatal healthcare professionals regarding late termination of pregnancy following the principles of qualitative content analysis. Parents deciding on whether to (dis)continue pregnancy needed more time and decisional support. Decentralized care and lacking continuity between caregivers led to negative experiences. No standardized bereavement services were offered after leaving the hospital. Integrating principles of perinatal palliative care to care might help to offer further decisional support and to overcome the fragmentation of care.

Why visiting one\u2019s ageing mother is not enough: on filial duties to prevent and alleviate parental loneliness

As people grow old, many risk becoming chronically lonely which is associated with e.g. depression, dementia, and increased mortality. Whoever else should help to protect them from this risk, various philosophers have argued that any children that they might have will often be among them. Proceeding on this assumption, this article considers what filial duties to protect ageing parents from loneliness consist of, or might consist of. I develop my answer by showing that a view that may be intuitively plausible, namely that they simply require children to visit their ageing parents regularly when they can do so at reasonable cost and call, text, and/or email them from time to time, is defective in three respects. First, it ignores children’s potential responsibilities to encourage and/or facilitate social interaction between their parents and third parties. Second, it ignores their potential responsibilities to help provide their parents with non-human companionship. Third, it elides over their duties to coordinate their efforts to offer loneliness protection with others. What I end up proposing instead, then, is an approach for protecting ageing parents from loneliness that is multi-faceted.

Modeling multivariate associations with parental loneliness via perceived closeness and support

Objectives: Recent research findings suggest the prevalence of loneliness is increasing in middle-aged adults parenting children, challenging the notion this demographic is typically at low risk of loneliness. Method: The current study applied the cognitive discrepancy model as theoretical foundation to investigate the variance of individual and situational variables contributing to perceived closeness and support and consequently loneliness. Structural equation modeling was employed to identify multivariate contributors associated with parental loneliness in 323 parents with an average age of 37.69 ( SD = 5.96) years. Results: Results support the theoretical proposition that individual factors, rather than situational, contribute to a greater variance of a perceived gap in relationship closeness and support. It was found that emotional competence, ability to forgive, emotional stability, extraversion, and lower mood levels are significant contributors to a small cognitive gap in perceived relationship closeness and protective against parental loneliness. Relationship status contributed a weak direct effect over perceived relationship closeness and support. Situational factors, including number of children and household income, were non-significant risks for loneliness. Overall, the model accounted for 65% of perceived relationship closeness and support and 85% of loneliness. The limitation of small number of male participants is discussed with regard to the existing research gap investigating male loneliness. Conclusion: A Pathway to Loneliness Risk Model is proposed, demonstrating that through increasing an individual’s intrapersonal and interpersonal resources and challenging negative cognitive biases and maladaptive schemas regarding an individual’s perception of their relationships, may lead to a reduction in the individual’s risk for loneliness.

Loneliness, eating, and body mass index in parent–adolescent dyads from the Family Life, Activity, Sun, Health, and Eating study

AbstractLoneliness is a salient risk factor for obesity, emotional eating, and poor diet. Because adolescents and parents are embedded within a family unit, their experiences of loneliness may be associated with both their own and one another's behaviors. To examine the extent to which parent and child loneliness predict body mass index (BMI) and eating in parents and adolescents, an actor–partner interdependence model of loneliness, eating, and BMI in adolescent–parent dyads was analyzed. There were actor effects among adolescents such that greater loneliness was positively associated with emotional eating and BMI‐z, and there was an actor effect among parents such that higher loneliness was positively related to emotional eating. There was a partner effect among adolescents such that greater parental loneliness was positively associated with adolescent emotional eating, and there was a partner effect among parents such that higher adolescent loneliness was positively associated with parental emotional eating. There were several actor–partner effects for loneliness and junk food in dyads with boys. Findings highlight the importance of dyadic models of loneliness in adolescent–parent dyads.

Family of Origin Environment and Adolescent Bullying Predict Young Adult Loneliness

ABSTRACT This study tested parental loneliness, family of origin environment, and a history of being bullied as predictors of loneliness in young adults. The role of social skills in young adults’ loneliness was also examined. Participants were 111 young-adult–parent dyads who completed measures of loneliness and the family communication environment. In addition, young adults completed measures of social skills and history of being bullied. Predictions were tested with structural equation modeling, path analysis, and multiple regression analysis. Results showed that parental loneliness and a history of being bullied were each significant predictors of young adult loneliness. A family environment that supported open communication was negatively associated with young adults’ loneliness. Parental loneliness and a history of being bullied each had direct effects on young adults’ loneliness as well as indirect effects through reduced social skills.

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