Results affirm affect variability as a unique predictor of alcohol consumption, independent of mean affect levels. Yet, it is important to differentiate social context of consumption, as well as type of affect variability, particularly at the between-person level. These distinctions help clarify inconsistencies in the self-medication literature regarding associations between average levels of affect and consumption. Importantly, consistent within-person relationships for both variabilities support arguments that both negative and positive affect variabilities are detrimental and reflect an inability to regulate emotional experience.
We experimentally investigated gratitude’s impact on loneliness and health in older adults. Participants were assigned to a daily gratitude writing exercise (treatment group) or a control group. Self-reported loneliness and health (i.e., subjective well-being, subjective health, health symptoms) were measured daily over a 3-week period. In support of our hypotheses, within-person variability in gratitude predicted differences in loneliness and health. Furthermore, those in the treatment group showed stronger cumulative effects of gratitude on loneliness and health symptoms when aggregated across the 20-day study. Additionally, a series of conditional, multilevel indirect effect models found that loneliness acted as a mechanism for gratitude’s differential impact on subjective well-being and health symptoms across conditions. Taken together, this study provides initial evidence that a simple gratitude exercise can strengthen associations among daily gratitude and loneliness and, consequently, improve health, for older adults.
Loneliness is a well-known indicator of relationship deficits, with potentially severe consequences on health and well-being (Perlman & Peplau, 1981). Research has used cross-sectional methods to examine behavioral consequences of loneliness (e.g., Cacioppo et al., 2002). However, within-person associations between daily fluctuations in loneliness and subsequent behavioral outcomes have yet to be explored. Using a sample of community-dwelling adults, the authors examined associations between daily loneliness on daily time with others, and subsequent context-specific alcohol consumption (i.e., social and solitary consumption), and individual differences in these patterns of behavior. Daytime loneliness significantly and uniquely predicted patterns of social behavior and context-specific consumption; time with others mediated loneliness-social consumption associations, but not loneliness-solitary consumption relationships. These findings contribute to existing literature by demonstrating the unique properties of solitary versus social consumption as behavioral responses to loneliness, thus addressing inconsistent findings regarding the effects of loneliness on alcohol consumption.
Research affirms that loneliness is a distressing experience with social-perceptual and behavioral consequences. Yet, little is known about consequences of transient loneliness, particularly within social interactions. The current study builds on reaffiliation motive and evolutionary models of state loneliness to investigate the effects of experimentally manipulated loneliness on individual and interaction partner perceptions during an event-sharing interaction, within 97 female dyads. Actor-partner interdependence mediation analyses revealed indirect effects for induction group (high vs. low loneliness) on positive affect, enjoyment, responsiveness, and partner positive affect, via induced state loneliness. Furthermore, state loneliness influenced actor and partner provision of responsiveness, via perceived responsiveness. Results reveal interpersonal consequences of transient loneliness, offering preliminary insight into conditions through which state perceptions of isolation may interfere with engagement in positive social interactions. Furthermore, implications for previously theorized evolutionary models of state loneliness and the reaffiliation motive are discussed.
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