Loneliness is a heritable trait that accompanies multiple disorders. The association between loneliness and mental health indices may partly be due to inherited biological factors. We constructed polygenic scores for 27 traits related to behavior, cognition, and mental health and tested their prediction for self-reported loneliness in a population-based sample of 8,798 Dutch individuals. Polyge...

Among other things, the analysis presented in this chapter shows that: • People aged 80 and older are the most vulnerable to loneliness. • More women than men report feeling lonely, but this difference lessens with age and for those over 80 years old it remains notable only on the ‘feel lack of companionship’ dimension of loneliness. • There is a socio-economic gradient in loneliness. • Living ...

Multimorbidity has been linked to a variety of negative outcomes although as yet, there has been little research on its association with loneliness. This study examined the association between physical multimorbidity (≥ 2 physical diseases) and loneliness in the general population and its potential mediators. Data came from the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2007 (N = 7403, aged ≥16 years)....

In the present study, we examined loneliness and negative life events as predictors of suicide risk (viz., hopelessness and suicidal behaviors) in a sample of 160 Hispanic adults. Consistent with expectations, we found loneliness and negative life events to be positively associated with both hopelessness and suicidal behaviors. In addition, results of conducting hierarchical regression analyses...

Utilizing the stress process and life course perspectives, we investigated the influence of non-spousal social support on the associations between marital quality, physical disability, and loneliness among married older adults. Using data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), we found that the association between physical disability and loneliness was partially accou...

PURPOSE The purpose of the study was to describe loneliness, depression, and health status in Korean and Japanese institutionalized elderly and explore differences between the countries. Also this study determined predictors of depression in each group. METHODS Elderly subjects, aged 65-98 (n = 184), were recruited from private nursing homes in Korea and Japan. Subjects were interviewed on he...

Subjective loneliness describes people who feel a disagreeable or unacceptable lack of meaningful social relationships, both at the quantitative and qualitative level. The studies to be presented tested an Italian 18-items self-report loneliness measure, that included items adapted from scales previously developed, namely a short version of the UCLA (Russell, Peplau and Cutrona, 1980), and the ...

BACKGROUND Many studies have determined the existence of an extremely close association between Internet addiction and depression. However, the reasons for the depression of Internet addicts have not been fully investigated. AIM This cross-sectional study aims to explore the factors that influence depression among Internet addicts. METHODS A total of 162 male Internet addicts completed the ...

The association between loneliness and suicidality has been documented in many studies, but these studies have been limited by cross-sectional designs and the use of adult-only populations. The purpose of the current study was to overcome these limitations by (a) investigating whether the link between loneliness and suicidal thoughts and behaviors occurs cross-sectionally, longitudinally, or bo...

Adolescents are particularly susceptible to feelings of loneliness and social relationships are therefore an important part of their development. The aim of the present study is to explore the patterns of adolescents' use of Social Network Sites, e.g. Facebook, in relation to friendships, focusing on the differences between teenagers with a high and low level of loneliness. Participants (N=988)...