Having Friends and Feeling Lonely

Abstract

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.

Is shame a proximal trigger for drinking? A daily process study with a community sample.

“…Our finding that shame was only predictive of solitary drinking may help explain why studies using between-subjects measures of shame that did not distinguish between solitary and social drinking have generally shown weak or non-existent relationships between shame and drinking frequency or quantity (e.g., Luoma et al, 2017). This pattern of results also aligns with research showing that social and solitary drinking have different antecedents (e.g., Arpin et al, 2015; Mohr et al, 2005), suggesting that future studies of shame and drinking should distinguish between social and solitary drinking.…”

“…relationship conflicts), which could, in turn, trigger drinking. Alternately, shame could lead to social isolation and loneliness, which might then lead people to cope through drinking (Arpin, Mohr, & Brannan, 2015).…”

“…In contrast to previous studies that asked whether drinking occurred at home or outside the home (and inferred that the former was solitary and the latter social), we directly asked whether drinking occurred in a solitary versus social context. This distinction is based on both theory (e.g., Cooper et al, 1995) and data (e.g., Arpin et al, 2015; Mohr et al, 2001; Mohr et al, 2010; Mohr et al, 2005) showing that solitary versus social drinking have distinct antecedents and consequences. Because shame tends to motivate social withdrawal and because solitary drinking might then serve as a means to reduce painful feelings of shame, we expected that shame would be associated with solitary drinking but not social drinking.…”

The contexts of heavy drinking: A systematic review of the combinations of context-related factors associated with heavy drinking occasions

“…Negative or positive states of mood were found to be associated with heavier or lighter drinking depending on the individual’s traits and environmental characteristics that these emotions are combined with [57, 61, 63, 72, 82, 86, 93]. Heavy drinking is particularly likely to occur on days when a lot of negative emotion or negative interpersonal events are experienced for individuals who are socially anxious [80], have low self-esteem, high shame or high neuroticism [54, 73, 77], have high social support [43], are less educated [61], have high drinking-to-cope motives [78, 82] or have low drinking to conform motives [78]. In contrast, studies suggested that people with low shame [73], non-students [86], students not affiliated with a sorority [72], men with low attention spans [57] and women with high attention spans [57] are less likely to engage in heavy drinking on days they have negative mood.…”

Loneliness is adversely associated with physical and mental health and lifestyle factors: Results from a Swiss national survey

“…In contrast, loneliness was considered to be a contributing, maintaining and poor prognostic factor in the development of alcohol abuse and a risk factor for all stages of alcoholism in a recent review [85]. Another study tried to explain these inconsistent findings by assessing transient loneliness and individual drinking behaviors, revealing that loneliness was related to an increase in solitary consumption and a decrease in social alcohol consumption [86]. Unfortunately, we were not able to confirm this potential explanation for the inconsistent association between loneliness and alcohol consumption because the SHS does not include data on social and solitary alcohol consumption.…”