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More Media CoverageThe Loneliness Curve
In an age when participation in community organizations, clubs and religious groups has declined, and more social interaction is happening online instead of in person, some young people are reporting levels of loneliness that, in past decades, were typically associated with older adults. It’s one of the many reasons loneliness has become a problem at both the beginning and end of our life span. In a study published last Tuesday in the journal Psychological Science, researchers found that loneliness follows a U-shaped curve: Starting from young adulthood, self-reported loneliness tends to decline as people approach midlife only to rise again after the age of 60, becoming especially pronounced by around age 80. While anyone can experience loneliness, including middle-aged adults, people in midlife may feel more socially connected than other age groups because they are often interacting with co-workers, a spouse, children and others in their community — and these relationships may feel stable and satisfying, said Eileen K. Graham, PhD, an associate professor of medical social sciences at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and the lead author of the study. Dr. Graham and other experts on social connection said there were small steps we could take at any age to cultivate a sense of belonging and social connection. Research has shown that poor health, living alone and having fewer close family and friends account for the increase in loneliness after about age 75. But isolation isn’t the only thing that contributes to loneliness — in people both young and old, loneliness stems from a disconnect between what you want or expect from your relationships and what those relationships are providing.
Are We Talking Too Much About Mental Health?
In recent years, mental health has become a central subject in childhood and adolescence. Teenagers narrate their psychiatric diagnosis and treatment on TikTok and Instagram. School systems, alarmed by rising levels of distress and self-harm, are introducing preventive coursework in emotional self-regulation and mindfulness. Now, some researchers warn that we are in danger of overdoing it. Mental health awareness campaigns, they argue, help some young people identify disorders that badly need treatment — but they have a negative effect on others, leading them to over-interpret their symptoms and see themselves as more troubled than they are. Jessica L. Schleider, a co-author of the self-labeling study, said this was no surprise. People who self-label “appear to be viewing depression as a biological inevitability,” she said. “People who don’t view emotions as malleable, view them as set and stuck and uncontrollable, tend to cope less well because they don’t see a point to trying.” But Dr. Schleider, an associate professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University and the director of the university’s Lab for Scalable Mental Health, pushed back on the prevalence inflation hypothesis. She disagreed with the claim that students are overdiagnosing themselves. Awareness campaigns are bound to have multiple effects, helping some students and not others. And ultimately, she argued, the priority for public health should be reaching young people in the most distress.
When in Life Are Folks Most Lonely?
A new review maps it out, finding that people are more lonely as young adults, grow less lonely as they approach middle age, and then fall back into loneliness in old age, researchers reported April 30 in the journal Psychological Science. “What was striking was how consistent the uptick in loneliness is in older adulthood,” said researcher Eileen Graham, PhD, an associate professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “There’s a wealth of evidence that loneliness is related to poorer health, so we wanted to better understand who is lonely and why people are becoming lonelier as they age out of midlife, so we can hopefully start finding ways to mitigate it,” Graham said. Social isolation can increase the risk of premature death to levels comparable to daily smoking, according to the U.S. Surgeon General. “Our study is unique because it harnessed the power of all these datasets to answer the same question — ‘How does loneliness change across the lifespan, and what factors contribute to becoming more or less lonely over time?’” Graham said. All of the studies were conducted prior to the pandemic, which has made loneliness even more pronounced, researchers said. Graham said the dip in loneliness during middle-age might be because people that age have many demands that require more social interaction — like being married, having kids and going to work.
Loneliness has been a big topic in health over the past year, with the U.S. surgeon general. Now, new research is breaking down when people are the most likely to feel lonely — and what other risk factors might also be at play. “Loneliness is a growing concern in the aging population,” study author Eileen Graham, PhD, associate professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, explained. But Graham’s work found that loneliness is more common in younger adults too. Here’s what’s behind this — and what other risk factors to be aware of. In older adulthood, it can be difficult to maintain social connections, especially if you move or “snowbird” someplace away from home. Graham points out that middle adulthood is “a uniquely complex and busy time” for many people. Gallagher agrees. “If you have kids, you have to be social because of them,” she says. “You inevitably end up talking to people and making playdates, where you socialize.”