Self-rated Loneliness Research Articles

PREVALENCE OF LONELINESS AND ISOLATION AMONG PEOPLE WITH DEMENTIA AND THEIR CARERS

People with dementia and carers may be vulnerable to loneliness and isolation. The IDEAL study includes two loneliness measures: 6 item de Jong Gierveld (DJG) scale (range 0-6) and a single-item self-report measure and the six-item Lubben social network scale (range 0-30). Full data are available for 1533 people with dementia for self-rated loneliness and for 1455 for the DJG scale and 1232 and 1195 carers respectively. For isolation complete data are available for 1489 people with dementia and 1252 carers. The prevalence of severe loneliness for people with dementia were 10% (self-rated) and 5% (DJG score 5+), approximately the population norm, and 15% and 18% respectively for carers. Most people with dementia or carers did not rate themselves as lonely ((79% and 71%) compared with 65% and 39% using the DJG scale. One third, 35%, of people with dementia were at risk of isolation compared with 18% of carers.

The association of multimorbidity, loneliness, social exclusion and network size: findings from the population-based German Ageing Survey

BackgroundThe aim of this study was to examine the association between multimorbidity and (i) loneliness, (ii) social exclusion and (iii) network size, respectively.MethodsCross-sectional data from a German representative sample of community-dwelling adults aged 40 and over was used (N = 7604). Multimorbidity was indicated with the presence of two or more diseases. Self-rated loneliness was assessed with a short form of the validated De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale and social exclusion was measured with a validated scale developed by Bude and Lantermann. Counts of important people in regular contact represented the network size of respondents.ResultsMultimorbidity was present in 68% of the sample. While controlling for potential confounders, multiple linear regression analysis yielded that multimorbidity was associated with increased loneliness (b = 0.08; p < 0.001) and increased social exclusion (b = 0.10; p < 0.01). Multimorbidity was also associated with an increased network size (b = 0.27; p < 0.001).ConclusionWhile there was an association between multimorbidity and increased social exclusion as well as increased loneliness, regressions also revealed an association between multimorbidity and an increased network size. Although the association between multimorbidity and our outcome measures is weak, its complex nature should be investigated further using a longitudinal approach.

My computer is more thoughtful than you: Loneliness, anthropomorphism and dehumanization

Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions and intentions to non-human entities. The inverse process of anthropomorphism is dehumanization in which individuals treat humans like animals or objects. Two studies were conducted to investigate whether there are relationships between loneliness, anthropomorphism, and dehumanization. Study 1 (N = 91) employed the UCLA loneliness scale in order to examine the extent to which subjective experiences of loneliness related to the tendency to describe nonhuman agents (i.e., animal, computer) with humanlike characteristics. Participants attributed more humanlike capacities to nonhuman agents with increasing levels of self-rated loneliness. Study 2 (N = 70) induced the emotion of loneliness using an experimental writing task and examined whether there were significant differences in anthropomorphism and dehumanization between the experimental condition of loneliness and the control condition. Results found participants tended to perceive nonhuman agents to be more humanlike in the condition of loneliness than in the control condition. In addition, there was a stronger tendency of dehumanization toward other humans in the condition of loneliness than in the control condition. This implies that anthropomorphism is related to sociality motivation, which is the need for social connection through establishing bonds with nonhumans, and may result in the dehumanization of other humans.

The association of falls with loneliness and social exclusion: evidence from the DEAS German Ageing Survey

BackgroundIt remains an open question whether falls are related with social relations, covering subjective (e.g., perceived loneliness) and more objective dimensions (e.g., number of important individuals in regular contact). Consequently, we aimed at examining the association between falls and social ties comprehensively, including loneliness, social exclusion and the number of important people in regular contact.MethodsCross-sectional data were used from a population-based sample of community-dwelling individuals aged 40 and over (n = 7808) in Germany. Self-rated loneliness was quantified using a short version of the De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale. Perceived social exclusion was measured using a scale developed by Bude and Lantermann. Furthermore and in contrast to the subjective outcome measures, the more objective number of important people in regular contact was also used as outcome variable. The experience of a fall in the preceding 12 months (yes; no) was assessed.ResultsControlling for various possible confounding variables, linear regressions showed that experiencing a fall in the past 12 months was associated with higher social exclusion (β = .08, p < .001), and increased loneliness (β = .08, p < .001), whereas it was not associated with the number of important people in regular contact.ConclusionsFindings stress the relation between falls and feelings of loneliness and social exclusion, whereas falls were unrelated to the more objective measure of number of important people in regular contact, suggesting that falls are particularly related to subjective measures of social ties and relations. This underlines the importance of interventions to prevent falls. Preventing falls in turn might help to prevent loneliness and social exclusion.

Using the De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale With Early Adolescents: Factor Structure, Reliability, Stability, and External Validity.

The present investigation is the first examination of the factor structures, reliability, external validity, longitudinal invariance, and stability of the De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale (DJGLS), as used with early adolescents. It is based on a two-wave, large, representative sample of Polish primary school pupils. The results demonstrate that the model most reflective of the factor structure of the DJGLS is the bifactor model, which assumes the occurrence of one, highly reliable, general factor (overall sense of loneliness) and two, relatively irrelevant, subfactors. Essential unidimensionality (the general factor accounting for three fourth of the common variance) suggest that the interpretation of the subfactors over and above the general factor is inappropriate. The longitudinal confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the bifactor structure of the DJGLS is invariant over time. Correlations with self-rated loneliness, sociometric acceptance/rejection, social self-efficacy, identification with class group, family structure, and gender provide support for the validity of the DJGLS. This implies that it could be used as a measure of loneliness in adolescence, which does not involve references to the school context, making it possible to conduct studies that go beyond school period and compare the intensity of the feeling of loneliness in that group with other age groups.

Psychometric properties and measurement invariance of the Spanish version of the 11-item De Jong Gierveld loneliness scale.

ABSTRACT Background: Loneliness has been associated with physical and mental health problems. It has also been considered a serious social problem that increases the use and costs of health services. The most widely used instrument in Europe for measuring loneliness is the de Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale (DJGLS). The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the 11-item DJGLS by means of the Rasch model, and its convergent and discriminant validity. Methods: Participants were a representative sample of Spanish community-dwelling adults aged 60 and older. We evaluated sociodemographic variables, health, social support, social activity, and subjective well-being measures. Results: Person and item fit statistics, and standardized residual principal component analysis revealed that the DJGLS was essentially unidimensional. However, we found DIF across marital status and living arrangements. Moderate to high associations were found between loneliness and depression, self-rated loneliness, positive and negative emotions, and satisfaction with life. The DJGLS differentiated between well known-groups according to gender, marital status, living arrangements, health, structural and functional aspects of social networks, and social activity. Conclusions: The DJGLS is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring loneliness in Spanish older adults. The addition of a few items in order to improve the measurement range is strongly recommended. Our findings are consistent with previous research indicating that loneliness is an important aspect of mental health and subjective well-being, and support the use of the scale to detect vulnerable population in old age.

Subtypes of Attachment Security in School-Age Children With Learning Disabilities

This study explored children’s secure attachment with both parents versus one parent, as well as the unique role of children’s patterns of close relationships with father and mother, for a deeper understanding of maladjustment problems among children with learning disabilities (LD). Specifically, this study identified subgroups of children with different individual profiles and examined whether these profiles associated differently with children’s self-rated loneliness, sense of coherence, hope, and effort, and with parent-rated externalizing/internalizing child behavior problems. Participants were 205 children (8–12 years of age), 107 with LD and 98 with typical development. Preliminary analyses indicated significant group differences on all but one of the children’s measures. Results from using k-means clustering methods indicated four distinct clusters. Scheffé procedure validated the clusters, revealing significant intercluster differences on all but one of the children’s socioemotional measures. Discussion focused on understanding different parent–child relationship patterns among these subgroups of school-age children with and without LD.

Self‐directed and interpersonal male violence in adolescence and young adulthood: a 30‐year follow up of a Stockholm cohort

In line with Wilkinson's theory on inequality and health, this study simultaneously analyses self-directed and interpersonal violence among men in a Stockholm birth cohort born in 1953 with respect to their early life experiences of stress, their lack of social connectedness and their relative deprivation. Multinomial logistic regressions with cluster-robust variance estimates were used. Self-directed violence was found to be related to self-rated loneliness and non-membership of voluntary associations but not to a lack of friendship in school at the age of 12-13, while the opposite was shown to be true for interpersonal violence. Growing up in a family that received means-tested social assistance at least once during the period 1953-1965 was taken as an objective indicator of relative deprivation and proved to be correlated with both self-directed and interpersonal violence. Disadvantaged social comparison at the age of 12-13, taken as a subjective indicator of relative deprivation, was only statistically related to a subsequent risk of interpersonal violence. It is suggested that different types of social connectedness and relative deprivation, respectively, explain these different patterns of violence. Furthermore, the study speculates on the possibility of frequent social comparison itself being a factor to consider when trying understanding violence in general.

Early life circumstances and male suicide – A 30-year follow-up of a Stockholm cohort born in 1953

This study analyses the relationship between early life circumstances and suicide during adolescence and young adulthood among men in a Stockholm birth cohort born in 1953. Relevant variables were derived from Durkheim's proposition of social integration and suicide and Merton's strain theory of deviance. The links between our background variables and suicide were estimated with rare events logistic regression, a statistical method specially developed for situations in which rare events are endemic to the data. We found that self-rated loneliness at age 12-13 as an indicator of social isolation, school absenteeism at the same age as an indicator of school integration, and growing up in a family which received means-tested social assistance at least once during the period 1953-1965 as an indicator of childhood poverty, were statistically related to subsequent suicide risk between 1970 and 1984. Furthermore, following Bourdieu's rereading of Durkheim's Suicide, we argue that social isolation and school integration can be seen as important forms of deprivation, since "social integration" can also be understood in terms of "social recognition". This view emphasises the importance of taking the emotional and social poverty of children just as seriously as their material poverty when it comes to suicide.

Maternal Personal Resources and Children’s Socioemotional and Behavioral Adjustment

The study examined the role of three maternal personal resources [sense of coherence (SOC), attachment style, and social/emotional feelings of loneliness] in explaining children's socioemotional adjustment (self-rated loneliness and SOC, and mother-rated child behavior) and children's (self-rated) secure attachment. The sample included 58 mother-child dyads (27 boys and 31 girls) aged 8-11 years. Preliminary analyses indicated significant group differences between mothers with high or low scores on the two subscales of the attachment scale (i.e., avoidance and anxiety), on their SOC, and their social/emotional loneliness. Findings revealed that maternal SOC significantly contributed to all child socioemotional adjustment measures and attachment scores. In addition, the current findings demonstrated the role of maternal anxious attachment in explaining children's externalizing behaviors. Discussion focused on the unique value of maternal characteristics for understanding social and emotional adjustment among school-age children.

The association between activity and wellbeing in later life: what really matters?

This paper reports a study of the complex associations between older people's participation in activities and their wellbeing in later life using data from a national sample of 1,334 Jewish-Israeli retirees. Confirmatory factor analysis substantiated a division of the activities into solitary, formal and informal categories, as postulated by activity theory. The outcome measure, the latent construct wellbeing, was compiled from scores on the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), a global measure of life satisfaction, and a measure of satisfaction with the use of time. The analysis also examined the influence of socio-economic status, health status and the quality of inter-personal relationships. ‘Social relationship quality’, also a latent construct, was a composite of measures of satisfaction with children, friends and neighbours and a self-rated loneliness scale. Path analysis using structural equation modelling was employed. The results showed that when the quality of social relationships was taken into account, the amount of activity had no independent effect on the respondents' wellbeing. Moreover, it was social relationship quality, a facet of informal activity that has generally been neglected in activity research, that emerged as the most influential variable in the association between activity and wellbeing. Thus, the findings provide empirical backing for the assertion that the quality of social ties matters more than activity participation per se as predictors of a good old age.

Compensating for losses in perceived personal control over health: a role for collective self-esteem in healthy aging.

Collective self-esteem (CSE) refers to an individual's self-evaluation of his or her social identity. We speculate that a positive social identity, or high CSE, facilitates accommodation to negative health-related circumstances in later life, especially when one feels unable to alter these circumstances directly. Accordingly, we hypothesized that CSE would be associated with fewer chronic conditions and greater perceived health for those with low perceived control. Hierarchical regression analyses of data from 1,267 respondents (60% women, aged 69-101) in the 1996 Aging in Manitoba survey confirmed the predicted CSE x Perceived Control interaction on both measures of health status. These findings persisted when respondents' self-rated loneliness was controlled. CSE may compensate to protect the health of older adults whose perceived personal control over health is low. Secondary control and alternative mechanisms for this protective effect are discussed.