Emotional and social loneliness in later life

Liu, Brittany S.; Rook, Karen S.

doi:10.1177/0265407512471809

Cited by 53 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Most importantly, when considering the methods of coping with loneliness, cognitive skills of mental self-regulation and its dimensions became expressed (e.g., Cacioppo & Hawkley, 2009). Mental work as a form of self-regulation was described in the data in versatile manner (see e.g., Liu & Rook, 2013). Concrete actions the students had taken to diminish their loneliness are examples of mental work.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

College students’ experiences of and coping with loneliness - possibilities of peer support

Vaarala¹,

Määttä²,

Uusiautti³

2013

IJRSE

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This study focused on the perceived loneliness of college students, and more specifically on the factors related to the emergence of the feeling of loneliness and ways of coping with loneliness. The research data were obtained from an internet forum functioning as a support network for children and adolescent called "Loneliness internet group". Anonymous messages (N=276) from summer and fall 2011 were selected as the data. Analysis was qualitative content analysis. The findings revealed the dimensions of college students' perceived loneliness and their coping methods. Also, the importance of the internet-based peer support was discussed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

College students’ experiences of and coping with loneliness - possibilities of peer support

Vaarala¹,

Määttä²,

Uusiautti³

2013

IJRSE

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“…Loneliness is an aspect that negatively affect social wellbeing. Shifts in the social environment, and in particular loneliness, are believed to be an important aspect in the life of aging people (see for example [Hughes et al, 2004;Liu & Rook, 2013]). Loneliness involves individual perception of social isolation and feelings of not belonging and being disconnected, and is a central aspect of a group of socio-emotional states including, among others, self-esteem, optimism, anxiety, anger and social support.…”

Section: Social Wellbeingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of online group exercises for older adults on physical, psychological and social wellbeing: a randomized pilot trial

Báez

Far

Ibarra

et al. 2017

PeerJ

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BackgroundIntervention programs to promote physical activity in older adults, either in group or home settings, have shown equivalent health outcomes but different results when considering adherence. Group-based interventions seem to achieve higher participation in the long-term. However, there are many factors that can make of group exercises a challenging setting for older adults. A major one, due to the heterogeneity of this particular population, is the difference in the level of skills. In this paper we report on the physical, psychological and social wellbeing outcomes of a technology-based intervention that enable online group exercises in older adults with different levels of skills.MethodsA total of 37 older adults between 65 and 87 years old followed a personalized exercise program based on the OTAGO program for fall prevention, for a period of eight weeks. Participants could join online group exercises using a tablet-based application. Participants were assigned either to the Control group, representing the traditional individual home-based training program, or the Social group, representing the online group exercising. Pre- and post- measurements were taken to analyze the physical, psychological and social wellbeing outcomes.ResultsAfter the eight-weeks training program there were improvements in both the Social and Control groups in terms of physical outcomes, given the high level of adherence of both groups. Considering the baseline measures, however, the results suggest that while in the Control group fitter individuals tended to adhere more to the training, this was not the case for the Social group, where the initial level had no effect on adherence. For psychological outcomes there were improvements on both groups, regardless of the application used. There was no significant difference between groups in social wellbeing outcomes, both groups seeing a decrease in loneliness despite the presence of social features in the Social group. However, online social interactions have shown to be correlated to the decrease in loneliness in the Social group.ConclusionThe results indicate that technology-supported online group-exercising which conceals individual differences in physical skills is effective in motivating and enabling individuals who are less fit to train as much as fitter individuals. This not only indicates the feasibility of training together despite differences in physical skills but also suggests that online exercise might reduce the effect of skills on adherence in a social context. However, results from this pilot are limited to a small sample size and therefore are not conclusive. Longer term interventions with more participants are instead recommended to assess impacts on wellbeing and behavior change.

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“…Diversos autores, siguiendo la propuesta de Weiss (1973), distinguen en sus análisis dos dimensiones básicas del sentimiento de soledad, que pueden darse en paralelo: la soledad emocional, motivada por la ausencia de una figura íntima o confidente en la vida de las personas, como la pareja o una estrecha amistad; y la soledad social, causada por la falta de una red amplia y efectiva de familiares, amigos o vecinos, lo que conduce a una integración social deficiente (Dahlberg y McKee 2014;Liu y Rook 2013;Dykstra y De Jong Gierveld 2004;van Baarsen 2002). Aunque la soledad, tanto en su componente emocional como social, es un sentimiento capaz de afectar a los individuos en cualquier momento de su curso vital, la literatura especializada coincide en que las personas mayores son especialmente vulnerables: tienen más riesgo de sufrirlo porque están expuestas a eventos críticos que generan cambios sustanciales en sus re-laciones sociales (Nicolaisen y Thorsen 2014;Victor y Yang 2012).…”

Section: Definición De Conceptosunclassified

“…Lo cierto es que otros muchos trabajos defienden que afecta más a las mujeres (Nicolaisen y Thorsen 2017; Iecovich, Jacobs y Stessman 2011; Savikko et al 2005), incluso si analizan a personas de cualquier edad (Victor y Yang 2012 Dykstra 1995). Incluso las hay que, a vueltas con los factores que predisponen para que las personas mayores lo experimenten, no aprecian que el sexo llegue a establecer diferencias significativas a nivel estadístico (Liu y Rook 2013). Otros trabajos obtienen unos resultados mixtos al comparar lo que sucede en diferentes lugares: Sundström et al (2009), con datos de una encuesta aplicada en doce países europeos, constatan que en nueve no alcanza a darse la asociación soledad-sexo, pero sí en tres: España, Francia y Grecia, donde la probabilidad de que aparezca el sentimiento es superior para las mujeres.…”

Section: Desacuerdo Al Asociarse El Sentimiento De Soledad Con La Edaunclassified

El sentimiento de soledad en la vejez

Doblas

Conde

2018

Rev. int. sociol.

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ResumenNuestro objetivo es indagar sobre uno de los problemas sociales que más afectan a las personas mayores, el sentimiento de soledad, distinguiendo entre las dimensiones emocional y social. Utilizando una estrategia metodológica cualitativa, con el grupo de discusión como técnica de producción de información y la teoría fundamentada como técnica de análisis, investigamos acerca de cómo lo experimentan las personas mayores viudas que viven solas, que constituyen un grupo de población que lo sufre especialmente. Hemos constatado que padecen soledad emocional, sobre todo, quienes enviudan a edad avanzada, tras varias décadas de matrimonio. Es un sentimiento ligado al vacío conyugal, con la noche como marco de aparición más propenso. Además, enviudar conlleva el riesgo de sufrir soledad social, debido al distanciamiento relacional que suele producirse con las amistades matrimoniales. También hemos apreciado diferencias de género en la incidencia del sentimiento de soledad, con una especial fragilidad de los varones para combatirlo. PalabRas ClaveMetodología cualitativa; Soledad emocional; Soledad social; Vida en solitario; Viudedad. abstRaCtOur purpose is to look into one of the social problems affecting the most to older people, namely the feeling of loneliness. We intend to approach this problem differ-entiating its social and emotional dimensions. Through a qualitative methodological strategy -focus groups as procedure to raise data and Grounded Theory as ana-lytical perspective-we study how that feeling is expe-rienced among a profile of older persons particularly affected by loneliness: older widowed persons living alone. Our findings prove that these persons suffer from emotional loneliness, especially those who enter wid-owhood at a later age and after decades of marriage. This feeling is linked to the loss of their spouse and it is at night when it is more likely to emerge. Moreover, wid-owhood comes along with the risk of social loneliness because of the relational distancing from friends who used to be connected to the married couple. We have identified as well gender differences regarding the im-pact of loneliness, being men those who are especially frail to confront it.

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Emotional and social loneliness in later life

Cited by 53 publications

References 43 publications

College students’ experiences of and coping with loneliness - possibilities of peer support

College students’ experiences of and coping with loneliness - possibilities of peer support

Effects of online group exercises for older adults on physical, psychological and social wellbeing: a randomized pilot trial

El sentimiento de soledad en la vejez

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