The study found that loneliness is more prevalent in younger and older adulthood, and lowest during middle adulthood. It also identified risk factors such as social isolation, education, and physical impairment that contribute to increased loneliness across the lifespan. The research was conducted by Northwestern Medicine and analyzed nine longitudinal studies from different countries.
The research also found several factors that can increase feelings of loneliness throughout a person’s life, including being socially isolated, gender, level of education, and physical disabilities.
“We were particularly struck by how consistently loneliness increases as people get older,” said Eileen Graham, the lead author of the study and an associate professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “There is a lot of evidence showing that loneliness is linked to poor health, so we wanted to delve deeper into who experiences loneliness and why it becomes more common as people age beyond midlife.”
Finding ways to mitigate it.”
Lack of connection can lead to an increased risk of premature death, comparable to daily smoking, according to the U.S. Surgeon General’s office. One year ago, they called for action to address the loneliness epidemic in America. Graham’s findings emphasize the need for targeted interventions to reduce social disparities in adulthood and hopefully decrease levels of loneliness, especially among older adults.
General practitioners may one day evaluate levels of loneliness during regular wellness visits to help identify those who are most at risk, Graham suggested.
The journal Psychological Science will publish the study on April 30th. The study identified factors linked to prolonged loneliness, including being female, having little social interaction, lacking a higher education, having a lower income, dealing with more physical limitations, being divorced or widowed, smoking, or having poorer cognitive, physical, or mental health. The study also explored how loneliness changes over the course of a lifetime, and found that this U-shaped pattern was consistent across nine datasets from studies in the U.K., Germany, and more., Sweden, the Netherlands, Australia, Israel, and other countries were included in the datasets, with only one from the U.S. This suggests that the loneliness issue is widespread globally, according to Graham. She stated, “Our study is unique because it harnessed the power of all these datasets to answer the same question — ‘How does loneliness change across the lifespan, and what factors contribute to becoming more or less lonely over time?'” All nine longitudinal studies were conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic, during which loneliness became more pronounced. So, why is middle adulthood less lonely?
While this research did not specifically investigate the reasons why middle-aged adults experience the least loneliness, Graham suggested that it could be due to the numerous social demands in a middle-aged person’s life, such as marriage, work, and forming friendships with other parents through their children’s social circles.
However, the connection between social interaction and loneliness is intricate. According to Graham, “It is possible to have a lot of social interaction and still feel lonely, or conversely, to be relatively isolated and not experience loneliness.”
In terms of younger adulthood being a lonelier period, Graham and the study’s co-Tomiko Yoneda, an author, stated that the study’s data begins at the end of adolescence, a time when young adults are going through various important life changes (like education, careers, friendships, romantic relationships, and starting families).
“As individuals grow older and progress from young adulthood to middle age, they start to settle down and establish themselves, forming adult friendships, social connections, and life partners,” explained Yoneda, who works as an assistant professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis. “We have evidence that married individuals tend to experience less loneliness, so for older adults who are unmarried, it is important to find ongoing sources of significance.
