Escape loneliness by going digital: A quantitative and qualitative evaluation of a Dutch experiment in using ECT to overcome loneliness among other adults

Background: This study evaluates the outcomes of an Internet-at-home intervention experiment that intended to decrease loneliness among chronically ill and physically handicapped older adults through introducing them to the use of an electronic communication facility. Method: To determine the effectiveness of the experiment in terms of reducing loneliness, 15 older adults were interviewed three times: shortly before the start, two years later and immediately after termination of the experiment, while their loneliness scores at zero and post-measurement were compared with those of a control group. Results: Both the participants and the control persons experienced a reduction in loneliness over time. However, the reduction was only significant for the intervention participants. Moreover, the changes in loneliness were significantly greater among the participants compared to the control persons. When looking more in detail, the effect of the experiment was only significant regarding emotional loneliness and among the highest educated. Findings of the qualitative research enabled us to understand the mechanisms through which the intervention helped alleviate loneliness. E-mail was found to facilitate social contact. Furthermore, the computer and Internet were often used to pass the time, taking people's minds off their loneliness. Unexpectedly, the intervention also improved people's self-confidence. Conclusion: The decline in loneliness is likely to be greater if persons under more favorable circumstances are selected and if more social functions of the Internet are used. © 2007 Taylor & Francis

Do personal conditions and circumstances surrounding partner loss explain loneliness in newly bereaved older adults?

This longitudinal study aims to explain loneliness in newly bereaved older adults, taking into account personal and circumstantial conditions surrounding the partner's death. A distinction is made between emotional and social loneliness. Data were gathered both before and after partner loss. Results were interpreted within the framework of the Theory of Mental Incongruity. The findings reveal that being unable to anticipate the partner's death is related to higher levels of emotional loneliness. Standards of instrumental support, measured indirectly by poor physical condition, lead to stronger emotional as well as social loneliness. Standards measured directly by importance attached to support or contacts result in higher emotional loneliness but, unexpectedly, in lower social loneliness. Furthermore, difficulties with establishing personal contacts, caused, for instance, by social anxiety, add to loneliness. It is concluded that circumstances related to the partner's illness may contribute to emotional loneliness after bereavement. Moreover, the results highlight the importance of taking coping attitudes into consideration for a better understanding of how newly bereaved older adults adapt to the loss of a partner

Changes in contact and support within intergenerational relationships in the Netherlands: A cohort and time-sequential perspective

This study investigates whether the frequency of contact and support exchanged in relationships between parents and adult children declines over successive cohorts and over individual time in the Netherlands. Respondents included a birth cohort from 1928 to 1937 with data collected in 1992 (N=941) and in 2002 (N=574) and a birth cohort from 1938 to 1947 with data collected in 2002 (N=884). We assessed cohort and time-sequential changes. Parents of the later cohort had more contact and support exchanges with their children than the earlier cohort, revealing that families have not declined in importance. Furthermore, longitudinally, contact and supportive exchanges with adult children 1