J Clin Psych: New research finds! People in their 20s are the loneliest, while people in their 60s are the least alone!

16, 2020 // -- Loneliness is a widespread and serious public health problem that affects people's health, well-being, and longevity; in search of effective interventions, scientists from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and others analyzed psychological and environmental factors that affect patterns of loneliness in different age groups, according to research published recently in the international journal The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. In the
article, researchers conducted an online survey of 2,843 participants aged 20 to 69 from the United States and found that 20-year-olds had the highest levels of loneliness, 60-year-olds had the lowest levels of loneliness, and that loneliness peaked in their mid-40s.
'We found a range of factors that can predict a person's level of loneliness in their lifetime,' said Dilip V. Jeste, M.D., 'and the researchers noted that low levels of empathy and compassion, smaller social networks, no spouse or partner, and more severe sleep disorders were consistent predictive factors that scientists had predicted for decades, and that lower social self-efficacy and high levels of anxiety were directly associated with severe autism in people outside the age of 60.'
in the 50s, loneliness is directly related to lower levels of decision-making.
photo source: CC0 Public Domain This study confirms previous researchers' conclusion that there is a strong negative correlation between loneliness and intelligence, particularly in pros social behavior (empathy and compassion).
The researchers point out that compassion seems to help reduce the level of loneliness in people of all ages, perhaps by making individuals more accurately perceive and understand other people's emotions and helpful behaviors, while also increasing their social self-efficacy and ability to socialize online.
While people in their 40s begin to experience physical challenges and health problems, such as high blood pressure and diabetes, researcher Nguyen said, people in this age group may begin to lose loved ones slowly, and their children will grow older and become more independent, which can significantly affect their self-goals and may trigger a shift in self-identification that can lead to increased levels of loneliness in the body.
The results of this paper are particularly important during the GLOBAL pandemic of COVID-19; researchers want to study in depth to find effective strategies to help reduce loneliness in people's challenging environments, and to effectively block the prevalence of COVID-19, maintaining a physical distance between populations may also increase their loneliness.
Finally, the researchers note that intervention and prevention may also take into account the stage of life of the population, and that there is a strong need to individualized and nuanced the prevention goals of different populations.
() Original source: Tanya T. Nguyen, PhD; Ellen E. Lee, MD; Rebecca E. Daly, BA; et al. Predictors of Loneliness by Age Decade, The Journal of Clinical Psy (2020). DOI: 10.4088/JCP.20m13378