From the University of Exeter press release:<\/p>\n
\nYoung people, men and people in “individualistic” societies report higher levels of loneliness<\/strong>, according to a large-scale global study.<\/p>\n
\nThe study — based on responses from more than 46,000 participants around the world — is the first published research to come from the BBC Loneliness Experiment.<\/p>\n
The ages of participants ranged from 16-99, and the results show a steady decrease in loneliness as people age.<\/p>\n
Based on the findings, a young man living in an individualistic society — such as the UK or the US — is more likely to report feeling lonely than an older woman in a collectivist society — such as China or Brazil.<\/p>\n
The study was carried out by Exeter, Manchester and Brunel universities.<\/p>\n
“Contrary to what people may expect, loneliness is not a predicament unique to older people,” said Professor Manuela Barreto, of the University of Exeter.<\/p>\n
“In fact, younger people report greater feelings of loneliness.<\/p>\n
“Since loneliness stems from the sense that one’s social connections are not as good as desired, this might be due to the different expectations younger and older people hold<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
“The age pattern we discovered seems to hold across many countries and cultures.”<\/p>\n
Professor Pamela Qualter, from the University of Manchester, said: “With regard to gender, the existing evidence is mixed.<\/p>\n
“There is an awareness that admitting to feeling ‘lonely’ can be especially stigmatising for men.<\/p>\n
“However, when this word is not used in the measures, men sometimes report more loneliness than women. This is indeed what we found.”<\/p>\n
Using survey responses from 237 countries, islands and territories, the researchers were able to carry out an unprecedented analysis of cultural differences.<\/p>\n
“This is particularly important because evidence for cultural differences in loneliness is very mixed and culture can affect actual and desired social interactions in opposite directions,” said Professor Barreto.<\/p>\n
“In addition, it can be argued that admitting to feeling lonely is also more stigmatising in individualistic societies, where people are expected to be self-reliant and autonomous.<\/p>\n
“Again, our use of a measure that did not directly refer to loneliness allowed us to show that people living in more individualistic societies report more loneliness than people living in more collectivist societies.”<\/p>\n
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Professor Barreto said particular attention should be paid to how social changes might be affecting young people.<\/p>\n
“Though it is true that younger people are better able to use technology to access social relationships, it is also known than when this is done as a replacement — rather than an extension — of those relationships, it does not mitigate loneliness,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From the University of Exeter press release: Young people, men and people in “individualistic” societies report higher levels of loneliness, according to a large-scale global study. The study — based… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":16004,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[122,524,12],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31831"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31831"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31855,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31831\/revisions\/31855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}