There has been little research into the various stages of the adult life span (19-65 years).
As a result, the relationships between demographic, social, and health-related factors and loneliness were investigated in young (19-34 years), early middle-aged (35-49 years), and late middle-aged (50-65 years) adults.
A secondary analysis was carried out using a large cross-sectional dataset.
A self-report survey was used to collect data in the Netherlands from September to December 2016.
The De Jong-Gierveld Loneliness Scale was used to assess loneliness.
In total, 26,342 adults aged 19 to 65 years old took part (response rate: 34%).
Multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted among the three age groups to examine associations between demographic, social, and health-related factors as independent variables and loneliness as the dependent variables.
Loneliness was prevalent in 39.7, 43.3, and 48.2% of young, early, and late middle-aged adults, respectively.
Loneliness was consistently associated with living alone, frequency of neighbor contact, perceived social exclusion, psychological distress, and psychological and emotional well-being across all groups.
When compared to late middle-aged adults, the association between ethnicity and loneliness was stronger in young and early middle-aged adults.
Young adults had the strongest link between the frequency of contact with friends and loneliness.
From young to late middle-aged adults, the strength of the association between financial insecurity and loneliness gradually decreased.
Only among young adults was educational level associated with loneliness, while an association between employment status and loneliness was found only among early middle-aged adults.
Loneliness was associated with perceived health only in late middle-aged adults.
Only among early and late middle-aged adults was the frequency of family contact associated with loneliness.
Cognitive dissonance asserts that to reduce discomfort when external inducements are insufficient to justify our behavior, we justify our our behavior or actions to ourselves. It refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors which produces a feeling of mental discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore balance.
According to the diathesis-stress model, mental disorders are caused by both a predisposition to mental illness and stress. As a consequence, the client's individual biological propensity to a psychological unbalance, combined with the stress of life experiences, can lead to mental illness, such as depression.
