Effective Coping with Loneliness: A Review

Rokach, Ami

doi:10.4236/ojd.2018.74005

Cited by 18 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Because of the inherent decline of social contacts at older ages, aging might also be accompanied with changing strategies to cope with loneliness. For instance, reflection and acceptance have been found to be important strategies to reduce distress caused by loneliness ( Rokach, 2018 ). This strategy has found to be more common in older individuals and in those who have experienced long-term loneliness ( Kharicha et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Loneliness in Later Life and Reaching Longevity: Findings From the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam

Brandts

Tilburg

Bosma³

et al. 2020

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B

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Objectives There is an increasing research interest in factors that characterize those who reach exceptionally old ages. Although loneliness is often associated with an increased risk for premature mortality, its relationship with reaching longevity is still unclear. We aimed to quantify the association between (social/emotional) loneliness and the likelihood of reaching the age of 90 years in men and women separately. Methods For these analyses, data from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA) was used. Loneliness, social loneliness and emotional loneliness were assessed at baseline using the 11-item De Jong-Gierveld scale in 1992-93 (at age 64-85 years). Follow-up for vital status information until the age of 90 years was 99.5% complete. Multivariable-adjusted Cox regression analyses with a fixed follow-up time were based on 1,032 men and 1,078 women to calculate Risk Ratios (RR) of reaching 90 years. Results No significant associations were observed between loneliness and reaching 90 years in both men (RR,0.90; 95%CI,0.70-1.14) and women (RR,0.98; 95%CI,0.83-1.14). Social loneliness was significantly associated with a reduced chance of reaching 90 years in women (RR,0.82; 95%CI,0.67-0.99). Discussion The current analyses, did not show support for the existence of a meaningful effect of loneliness on reaching longevity in both sexes. When investigating specific dimensions of loneliness, we observed that reporting social loneliness was associated with reaching 90 years in women. This indicates that, for women, a large and diverse personal network at an older age could increase the probability of reaching longevity. However, replication of our findings in other cohorts is needed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Loneliness in Later Life and Reaching Longevity: Findings From the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam

Brandts

Tilburg

Bosma³

et al. 2020

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B

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“…The latest review summarized that the variety of effective coping strategies can be grouped into six dimensions, including enhancing perceived social support (Rokach, 2018). But, so far, interventions that enhance social support have been limited to allowing lonely people to take animal-assisted therapy (Banks et al, 2008) or participate in community activities (Collins and Benedict, 2006;Stewart et al, 2009).…”

Section: The Beneficial Effect Of Empathy On Loneliness Interventionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Absence and Presence of Human Interaction: The Relationship Between Loneliness and Empathy

Zheng

Huang

2020

Front. Psychol.

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Loneliness is the negative experience of a discrepancy between the desired and actual personal network of relationships. Whereas past work have focused on the effect of loneliness on prosocial behaviors, the present research addressed the gap by exploring the effect of loneliness on empathy. Empathy is the emotional reaction of sharing in others' internal experiences. We adopted a new paradigm-empathy selection task, which uses free choices to assess the desire to empathize. Participants made a series of binary choices, selecting situations that instructed them to empathize or objectively describe. Results from two studies showed that, compared to non-lonely people, lonely people were more likely to choose positive empathy but to avoid negative empathy. The pattern occurs because lonely people perceived higher (vs. lower) social support in the positive (vs. negative) empathy tasks. Moreover, empathy served to be an adaptive emotion regulation strategy developed by lonely people to reduce their loneliness effectively. This research has resulted in both theoretical contributions to prosocial behavior literature and the further discovery of practical implications for loneliness intervention.

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“…We previously highlighted how people experiencing cognitive decline might have different needs than cognitively unimpaired individuals (see Figure 1). Individuals differ inter-individually and inter-culturally not only in the occurrence of loneliness and dementia but also in the ways that they cope with neurodegenerative diseases and mental health (e.g., [2,51]). demographic groups due to their life experiences and the availability of such techniques [2].…”

Section: The Right Personmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Current scales assessing loneliness do not account for the subjective burden of loneliness for the individual [31]. This may result from the consensus definition of loneliness that depicts it as a negative feeling, one that is implied to be equally negative for everyone another person experiencing loneliness might appraise this feeling as a persisting encumbrance, which may reflect a maladaptive coping strategy [51]. Similarly, different individuals with AD may have different appraisals and states of awareness towards their cognitive impairments [5].…”

Section: The Right Personmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Why Loneliness Interventions Are Unsuccessful: A Call for Precision Health

Akhter-Khan¹,

Au²

2020

Adv Geriatr Med Res

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Background: Loneliness has drawn increasing attention over the past few decades due to rising recognition of its close connection with serious health issues, like dementia. Yet, researchers are failing to find solutions to alleviate the globally experienced burden of loneliness. Purpose: This review aims to shed light on possible reasons for why interventions have been ineffective. We suggest new directions for research on loneliness as it relates to precision health, emerging technologies, digital phenotyping, and machine learning. Results: Current loneliness interventions are unsuccessful due to (i) their inconsideration of loneliness as a heterogeneous construct and (ii) not being targeted at individuals' needs and contexts. We propose a model for how loneliness interventions can move towards finding the right solution for the right person at the right time. Taking a precision health approach, we explore how transdisciplinary research can contribute to creating a more holistic picture of loneliness and shift interventions from treatment to prevention. Conclusions: We urge the field to rethink metrics to account for diverse intra-individual experiences and trajectories of loneliness. Big data sharing and evolving technologies that emphasize human connection raise hope for realizing our model of precision health applied to loneliness. There is an urgent need for precise, integrated, and theory-driven interventions that focus on individuals' needs and the subjective burden of loneliness in the ageing context.

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Effective Coping with Loneliness: A Review

Cited by 18 publications

References 22 publications

Loneliness in Later Life and Reaching Longevity: Findings From the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam

Loneliness in Later Life and Reaching Longevity: Findings From the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam

Absence and Presence of Human Interaction: The Relationship Between Loneliness and Empathy

Why Loneliness Interventions Are Unsuccessful: A Call for Precision Health

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