Older people are vulnerable to loneliness and isolation. Solitary seniors are more likely to suffer the feelings of loneliness with inadequate social networks. Based on a face-to-face questionnaire survey with 151 communitydwelling solitary seniors, the present study examined the associations between social support and the sense of loneliness among solitary older adults in Hong Kong. The result...

Loneliness and perceived social support were examined in 39 adolescent boys with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) by means of a self-labeling loneliness measure, the UCLA Loneliness Scale (third version), and the Social Support Scale for Children. Twenty-one percent of the boys with ASD described themselves as often or always feeling lonely. Compared with 199 boys from regular schools in a natio...

Adults with ID/DD live in increasingly small community settings, where the risk of loneliness may be greater. We examined self-reported loneliness among 1,002 individuals with ID/DD from 5 states in relation to community residence size, personal characteristics, social contact, and social climate. One third reported being lonely sometimes and one sixth said they were often lonely, but lonelines...

OBJECTIVES This study examines the effects of own and spousal disability on social and emotional loneliness among married adults aged 65 and older. METHOD Data from 710 men and 379 women of a Dutch community sample were analyzed with linear regression analyses. RESULTS For men, only their wives' disability was related to higher levels of social loneliness, whereas for women mainly their own...

Loneliness, sometimes referred to as “perceived social isolation,” is defined as a subjective experience of social isolation. Loneliness has been shown to be related more to the quality of social relationships than to the quantity, and is typically characterized by feelings of social disconnection (e.g., being misunderstood by others). It occurs when there is a discrepancy between desired and a...

OBJECTIVE It is widely recognized that social networks and loneliness have effects on health. The present study assesses the differential association that the components of the social network and the subjective perception of loneliness have with health, and analyzes whether this association is different across different countries. METHODS A total of 10 800 adults were interviewed in Finland, ...

OBJECTIVE Loneliness is a well-established risk factor for poor physical health. Much less is known about how loneliness affects patient-reported outcomes (PROs), such as somatic symptoms, which are increasingly important for guiding symptom management and assessing quality of patient care. The current study investigates whether (a) loneliness and social isolation predict cold symptoms independ...

Background and purpose: This study aimed to examine the relationship between the life quality of physically disabled individuals and their social and emotional loneliness. Materials and Methods: This study was a cross-sectional type of research in which "Physically Handicapped Life Quality Measurement Tool (WHOQOL-DIS)" was used to determine the quality of life, and "Social and Emotional Lonel...

OBJECTIVE A number of mechanisms have been proposed through which social isolation and loneliness may affect health, including health-related behavioral and biological factors. However, it is unclear to what extent isolation and loneliness are independently associated with these pathways. The objective of the present analysis was to determine the impact of social isolation and loneliness, indiv...

This study examined the relationship of overt and relational victimization to social anxiety, loneliness, and prosocial behaviours in a sample of female adolescents. The Social Experience Questionnaire, Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents, and Asher Loneliness Scale were administered to 561 girls in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh grades of an urban parochial high school. Consistent with prior ...