Copyright © The Author(s) 2021. We provide an overview of the topics included in the special section of the International Journal of Behavioral Development on Loneliness Across the Life Span. We highlight the use of a life span approach to understanding loneliness and the different methodological approaches adopted by researchers. This special issue contributes toward the development of a holistic research agenda addressing loneliness across the life course and away from a focus solely upon specific age groups such as adolescents, young adults, or older adults who have been the focus of most loneliness research until comparatively recently

Goossens, L

Qualter, P

Victor, C

International Journal of Behavioral Development

We provide an overview of the topics included in the special section of the International Journal of Behavioral Development on Loneliness Across the Life Span. We highlight the use of a life span approach to understanding loneliness and the different methodological approaches adopted by researchers. This special issue contributes toward the development of a holistic research agenda addressing loneliness across the life course and away from a focus solely upon specific age groups such as adolescents, young adults, or older adults who have been the focus of most loneliness research until comparatively recently

Goossens, Luc

Victor, Christina

Qualter, Pamela

The University of Manchester - Institutional Repository

The University of Manchester ResearchIntroduction to the special section on loneliness acrossthe life spanDOI:10.1177/01650254211029719Document VersionFinal published versionLink to publication record in Manchester Research ExplorerCitation for published version (APA):Goossens, L., Victor, C., & Qualter, P. (Accepted/In press). Introduction to the special section on loneliness acrossthe life span. International Journal of Behavioral Development. https://doi.org/10.1177/01650254211029719Published in:International Journal of Behavioral DevelopmentCiting this paperPlease note that where the full-text provided on Manchester Research Explorer is the Author Accepted Manuscriptor Proof version this may differ from the final Published version. If citing, it is advised that you check and use thepublisher's definitive version.General rightsCopyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the Research Explorer are retained by theauthors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise andabide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.Takedown policyIf you believe that this document breaches copyright please refer to the University of Manchester’s TakedownProcedures [http://man.ac.uk/04Y6Bo] or contact uml.scholarlycommunications@manchester.ac.uk providingrelevant details, so we can investigate your claim.Download date:30. Jun. 2022Special Section: Loneliness Across the Life SpanIntroduction to the special sectionon loneliness across the life spanLuc Goossens1, Christina Victor2, and Pamela Qualter3AbstractWe provide an overview of the topics included in the special section of the International Journal of Behavioral Development on Loneliness Acrossthe Life Span. We highlight the use of a life span approach to understanding loneliness and the different methodological approaches adoptedby researchers. This special issue contributes toward the development of a holistic research agenda addressing loneliness across the lifecourse and away from a focus solely upon specific age groups such as adolescents, young adults, or older adults who have been the focus ofmost loneliness research until comparatively recently.KeywordsLoneliness, life span, development, age differencesThis special section on Loneliness Across the Life Span bringstogether an international group of researchers from Belgium, Ger-many, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States.In our editorial, we do not attempt to summarize the six papersincluded by highlighting their key points. Rather, we offer readersan editorial that focuses upon the principal advances the specialissue makes to extending the state of the art in loneliness research.In drawing together this special issue, we sought to extend theevidence base of loneliness research by emphasizing the interdisci-plinarity inherent in research in this area. This is reflected in ourcollection of papers that includes contributions from gerontology,developmental psychology, psychiatry, sociology, and social psy-chology. We propose that to comprehensively explore and under-stand loneliness as a phenomenon that affects all age groups, it isvital to bring together research from such diverse disciplines.We have sought to consolidate and extend the notion that lone-liness is experienced across the life span. Both Pearce andcolleagues (2021) and Hawkley and colleagues (2021) adopt anexplicitly life course approach to understanding loneliness includ-ing populations from 16 to 99 years, whereas other contributorsfocus on specific life stages. Geukens and colleagues (2021) andYang and colleagues (2021) concentrate on adolescents, while Mat-thews and colleagues (2021) and Mund and colleagues (2021) focusupon adults. Methodological novelty is exemplified by the work ofMatthews and colleagues (2021) who use a sample of twins, anapproach closely associated with social or genetic epidemiology.Mund and colleagues (2021) use a dyadic couple-based approach tounderstanding loneliness rather than simply focusing upon individ-uals. Such an approach extends our understanding by placing lone-liness within the context of dyadic relationships.Our combination of studies that look at the life span, couples,twins, and young adults enables us to appreciate the universality ofthe experience of loneliness across the life span and the fact thatloneliness is not the preserve of specific age groups. At the sametime, it enables us to distinguish factors that are universally asso-ciated with loneliness from those that are specific to particular agegroups or life stages. Hawkley and colleagues (2021) demonstratethat a range of predictors of loneliness are universal across the adultlife course, notably living alone, widowhood, poor health, and lowincome. Both Yang and colleagues (2021) and Hawkley and col-leagues (2021) develop the notion of the “clustering of risk” withloneliness not happening in a vacuum, but alongside other adver-sities which may or may not be life stage specific.However, the uniqueness of some stages of development, mostnotably adolescence and early adulthood, is also important, andthree of our papers emphasize the importance of cognitive pro-cesses in understanding loneliness in these age groups. Geukensand colleagues (2021) report that fear of negative evaluation byothers in social situations and low self-esteem predict the rate ofchange in loneliness over time (from ages 12 to 13 years). Pearceand colleagues (2021) report that only those aged 25!34 under-performed on social tasks, choking under pressure, potentiallybecause of their overwhelming need for social connections.A key tenant of loneliness research is that loneliness cannot beattributed to individuals by external observers. However, Matthewsand colleagues (2021) offer an intriguing finding that strangers cancorrectly identify young people as lonely. They hypothesize that lone-liness makes people uncomfortable in their skin during social inter-action. This uneasiness can be detected by their interaction partnersand have a negative impact on that relationship. The associationbetween higher loneliness and lower relationship quality as reportedby one’s romantic-sexual partner in the study by Mund and colleagues(2021) seems to corroborate that presumed underlying process.The set of papers in our special issue offer a unique insight intoloneliness across the life span. At the same time, they also serve to1 KU Leuven, Belgium2 Brunel University, UK3 University of Manchester, UKCorresponding author:Pamela Qualter, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, ManchesterM13 9PL, UK.Email: pamela.qualter@manchester.ac.ukInternational Journal ofBehavioral Development1–2ª The Author(s) 2021Article reuse guidelines:sagepub.com/journals-permissionsDOI: 10.1177/01650254211029719journals.sagepub.com/home/jbdhighlight areas for further research. We suggest there is a need formore interdisciplinary research and collections of papers that exploreloneliness. This enables exploration of how loneliness may differen-tially affect people at different developmental stages and can highlightthe universality and unique features of loneliness across the life courseand at specific life stages. The papers in this special issue are largelyfocused on individual factors, with the exception of Mund and col-leagues (2021), who remind us that people function in dyads andgroups and influence each other during social interaction. Movingforward, we suggest that there is a need to move beyond individualsand dyads to look at how the wider community, both physical andsocial, can influence the experience of loneliness. For certain popula-tion groups, notably children and adolescents, the very old and thoseliving in specific settings such as prisons, care homes, and supportedhousing, our evidence relating to prevalence and predictors is less wellestablished. Two further aspects of our evidence base would benefitfrom further exploration: there is a significant need to develop ourportfolio of longitudinal studies to (1) enable us to determine predic-tors of changes in loneliness (both positive and negative) and (2)develop our understanding of what distinguishes chronic from transi-ent loneliness and how those may vary across the life course. Suchevidence is essential for the development of interventions to prevent ormitigate loneliness and the development of robust public policy.FundingThe author(s) received no financial support for the research, author-ship, and/or publication of this article.ORCID iDPamela Qualter https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6114-3820ReferencesGeukens, F., Maes, M., Spithoven, A., Pouwels, J. L., Danneel, S., Cil-lessen, A. H. N., Van den Berg, Y. M. H., & Goossens, L. (2021).Changes in adolescent loneliness and concomitant changes in fear ofnegative evaluation and self-esteem. International Journal of Beha-vioral Development. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025420958194Hawkley, L. D., Buecker, S., Kaiser, T., & Luhmann, M. (2021). Lone-liness from young adulthood to old age: Explaining age differencesin loneliness. International Journal of Behavioral Development.https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025420971048Matthews, T., Fisher, H. L., Bryan, B. T., Danese, A., Moffitt, T. E.,Qualter, P., Verity, L., & Arseneault, L. (2021). This is what lone-liness looks like: A mixed-methods study of loneliness in adoles-cence and young adulthood. International Journal of BehavioralDevelopment. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025420979357Mund, M., Weldman, R., Wrzus, C., Johnson, M. D., Bühler, J. L.,Burriss, R. P., Wünsche, J., & Grob, A. (2021). Loneliness is asso-ciated with the subjective evaluation of but not daily dynamics inpartner relationships. International Journal of Behavioral Develop-ment. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025420951246Pearce, E., Barreto, M., Victor, C., Hammond, C., Eccles, A. M.,Richins, M. T., O’Neill, A., Knowles, M., & Qualter, P. (2021).Choking under pressure: Does it get easier with age? How lone-liness affects social monitoring across the life span. InternationalJournal of Behavioral Development. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025420979369Yang, K., Petersen, K. J., & Qualter, P. (2021). Undesirable social rela-tions as risk factors for loneliness among 14-year-olds in the UK:Findings from the millenium cohort study. International Journal ofBehavioral Development. https://doi.org/10.1177/01650254209657372 International Journal of Behavioral Development

English

Introduction to the special section on loneliness across the life span

Brunel University Research Archive

Special Section: Loneliness Across the Life SpanIntroduction to the special sectionon loneliness across the life spanLuc Goossens1, Christina Victor2, and Pamela Qualter3AbstractWe provide an overview of the topics included in the special section of the International Journal of Behavioral Development on Loneliness Acrossthe Life Span. We highlight the use of a life span approach to understanding loneliness and the different methodological approaches adoptedby researchers. This special issue contributes toward the development of a holistic research agenda addressing loneliness across the lifecourse and away from a focus solely upon specific age groups such as adolescents, young adults, or older adults who have been the focus ofmost loneliness research until comparatively recently.KeywordsLoneliness, life span, development, age differencesThis special section on Loneliness Across the Life Span bringstogether an international group of researchers from Belgium, Ger-many, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States.In our editorial, we do not attempt to summarize the six papersincluded by highlighting their key points. Rather, we offer readersan editorial that focuses upon the principal advances the specialissue makes to extending the state of the art in loneliness research.In drawing together this special issue, we sought to extend theevidence base of loneliness research by emphasizing the interdisci-plinarity inherent in research in this area. This is reflected in ourcollection of papers that includes contributions from gerontology,developmental psychology, psychiatry, sociology, and social psy-chology. We propose that to comprehensively explore and under-stand loneliness as a phenomenon that affects all age groups, it isvital to bring together research from such diverse disciplines.We have sought to consolidate and extend the notion that lone-liness is experienced across the life span. Both Pearce andcolleagues (2021) and Hawkley and colleagues (2021) adopt anexplicitly life course approach to understanding loneliness includ-ing populations from 16 to 99 years, whereas other contributorsfocus on specific life stages. Geukens and colleagues (2021) andYang and colleagues (2021) concentrate on adolescents, while Mat-thews and colleagues (2021) and Mund and colleagues (2021) focusupon adults. Methodological novelty is exemplified by the work ofMatthews and colleagues (2021) who use a sample of twins, anapproach closely associated with social or genetic epidemiology.Mund and colleagues (2021) use a dyadic couple-based approach tounderstanding loneliness rather than simply focusing upon individ-uals. Such an approach extends our understanding by placing lone-liness within the context of dyadic relationships.Our combination of studies that look at the life span, couples,twins, and young adults enables us to appreciate the universality ofthe experience of loneliness across the life span and the fact thatloneliness is not the preserve of specific age groups. At the sametime, it enables us to distinguish factors that are universally asso-ciated with loneliness from those that are specific to particular agegroups or life stages. Hawkley and colleagues (2021) demonstratethat a range of predictors of loneliness are universal across the adultlife course, notably living alone, widowhood, poor health, and lowincome. Both Yang and colleagues (2021) and Hawkley and col-leagues (2021) develop the notion of the “clustering of risk” withloneliness not happening in a vacuum, but alongside other adver-sities which may or may not be life stage specific.However, the uniqueness of some stages of development, mostnotably adolescence and early adulthood, is also important, andthree of our papers emphasize the importance of cognitive pro-cesses in understanding loneliness in these age groups. Geukensand colleagues (2021) report that fear of negative evaluation byothers in social situations and low self-esteem predict the rate ofchange in loneliness over time (from ages 12 to 13 years). Pearceand colleagues (2021) report that only those aged 2534 under-performed on social tasks, choking under pressure, potentiallybecause of their overwhelming need for social connections.A key tenant of loneliness research is that loneliness cannot beattributed to individuals by external observers. However, Matthewsand colleagues (2021) offer an intriguing finding that strangers cancorrectly identify young people as lonely. They hypothesize that lone-liness makes people uncomfortable in their skin during social inter-action. This uneasiness can be detected by their interaction partnersand have a negative impact on that relationship. The associationbetween higher loneliness and lower relationship quality as reportedby one’s romantic-sexual partner in the study by Mund and colleagues(2021) seems to corroborate that presumed underlying process.The set of papers in our special issue offer a unique insight intoloneliness across the life span. At the same time, they also serve to1 KU Leuven, Belgium2 Brunel University, UK3 University of Manchester, UKCorresponding author:Pamela Qualter, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, ManchesterM13 9PL, UK.Email: pamela.qualter@manchester.ac.ukInternational Journal ofBehavioral Development1–2ª The Author(s) 2021Article reuse guidelines:sagepub.com/journals-permissionsDOI: 10.1177/01650254211029719journals.sagepub.com/home/jbdhighlight areas for further research. We suggest there is a need formore interdisciplinary research and collections of papers that exploreloneliness. This enables exploration of how loneliness may differen-tially affect people at different developmental stages and can highlightthe universality and unique features of loneliness across the life courseand at specific life stages. The papers in this special issue are largelyfocused on individual factors, with the exception of Mund and col-leagues (2021), who remind us that people function in dyads andgroups and influence each other during social interaction. Movingforward, we suggest that there is a need to move beyond individualsand dyads to look at how the wider community, both physical andsocial, can influence the experience of loneliness. For certain popula-tion groups, notably children and adolescents, the very old and thoseliving in specific settings such as prisons, care homes, and supportedhousing, our evidence relating to prevalence and predictors is less wellestablished. Two further aspects of our evidence base would benefitfrom further exploration: there is a significant need to develop ourportfolio of longitudinal studies to (1) enable us to determine predic-tors of changes in loneliness (both positive and negative) and (2)develop our understanding of what distinguishes chronic from transi-ent loneliness and how those may vary across the life course. Suchevidence is essential for the development of interventions to prevent ormitigate loneliness and the development of robust public policy.FundingThe author(s) received no financial support for the research, author-ship, and/or publication of this article.ORCID iDPamela Qualter https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6114-3820ReferencesGeukens, F., Maes, M., Spithoven, A., Pouwels, J. L., Danneel, S., Cil-lessen, A. H. N., Van den Berg, Y. M. H., & Goossens, L. (2021).Changes in adolescent loneliness and concomitant changes in fear ofnegative evaluation and self-esteem. International Journal of Beha-vioral Development. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025420958194Hawkley, L. D., Buecker, S., Kaiser, T., & Luhmann, M. (2021). Lone-liness from young adulthood to old age: Explaining age differencesin loneliness. International Journal of Behavioral Development.https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025420971048Matthews, T., Fisher, H. L., Bryan, B. T., Danese, A., Moffitt, T. E.,Qualter, P., Verity, L., & Arseneault, L. (2021). This is what lone-liness looks like: A mixed-methods study of loneliness in adoles-cence and young adulthood. International Journal of BehavioralDevelopment. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025420979357Mund, M., Weldman, R., Wrzus, C., Johnson, M. D., Bühler, J. L.,Burriss, R. P., Wünsche, J., & Grob, A. (2021). Loneliness is asso-ciated with the subjective evaluation of but not daily dynamics inpartner relationships. International Journal of Behavioral Develop-ment. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025420951246Pearce, E., Barreto, M., Victor, C., Hammond, C., Eccles, A. M.,Richins, M. T., O’Neill, A., Knowles, M., & Qualter, P. (2021).Choking under pressure: Does it get easier with age? How lone-liness affects social monitoring across the life span. InternationalJournal of Behavioral Development. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025420979369Yang, K., Petersen, K. J., & Qualter, P. (2021). Undesirable social rela-tions as risk factors for loneliness among 14-year-olds in the UK:Findings from the millenium cohort study. International Journal ofBehavioral Development. https://doi.org/10.1177/01650254209657372 International Journal of Behavioral Development

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