Why do the lonely stay lonely? Examining maintaining factors in chronic loneliness in adolescence.

Whereas transient feelings of loneliness do not necessarily pose substantial problems, chronic feelings of loneliness are a serious cause for concern. About 3% to 14% of youth is chronically lonely, which puts them at high risk for various mental and physical health problems. Yet, it remains unclear why loneliness is persistent over time in some individuals but not in others, and how a history of loneliness affects new social interactions. This project aims to address this particular gap in literature and investigates maintaining factors in chronic loneliness. Specifically, this project aims to compare non-lonely, temporarily lonely, and chronically lonely individuals’ reactions in new social encounters, including both real-life and experimentally manipulated social situations. It is expected that chronically lonely individuals’ emotions (e.g., hypersensitivity to social threat), attributions (e.g., blaming oneself for social failure), coping styles (e.g., ruminating about negative social events), motivations (e.g., lacking intrinsic motivation for social interaction), and behaviors (e.g., avoiding social situations) differ from other individuals, which, in turn, contributes to chronic loneliness. As such, this project aims to elaborate current theories on the chronicity loneliness, to provide empirical evidence for maintaining mechanisms in the self-reinforcing loneliness loop, and to contribute to the development of more effective prevention and intervention programs.