When we talk about adolescence, the image of a life stage that takes place in a gang and in connection with equals usually comes to mind. However, this is not always the case. Recent data suggests that younger people now feel lonelier even than older people, who have traditionally been the main victims of unwanted loneliness. The pyramid, there is no doubt, has been inverted.
Although there are differences. In adolescence, the experience of loneliness is greater due to the importance that social relationships have in the formation of a person’s identity. In late adulthood, it is above all the loss of a spouse, distancing from the social support network and the emancipation of children that can cause some people to feel alone without wanting to.
What is striking is that the international HSBC study has brought to light that the feeling of feeling alone increasingly appears at younger ages. Specifically, 12% of 11-year-old girls show significant signs of loneliness.
Desired and unwanted loneliness
Seeking to spend time alone is something that can feel good. The problem arises when it is not a choice, but an imposition. We feel alone when there is a discrepancy between the social relationships one has and those one would like to have.
Being a subjective sensation, being socially isolated does not necessarily mean feeling alone. And, on the contrary, a teenager (or a person of any age) can feel alone even when they have people around them.
One in four young people in Spain, for example, say they feel lonely, and half have experienced it for at least three years. The figure could be higher, due to the stigma that still implies being alone, especially in adolescents. In fact, three out of four teenagers say they know someone who feels lonely without wanting to.
Although the Covid-19 pandemic could be thought of as a critical moment for this problem, eight out of ten adolescents do not believe that the pandemic is the cause of their loneliness.
Explanatory factors
Loneliness in adolescence is related to various factors. For example, having been a victim of bullying as a child can be a factor in feeling more lonely in adolescence. More than half of young people who feel lonely have suffered bullying during their lives according to the report from the State Observatory of Unwanted Loneliness, which highlights the role of early experiences in socialization and relationships with others. Some social factors such as poverty or repeating a grade also influence the probability of feeling alone.
The role of technologies
Although it is a paradox, studies agree that people who use the Internet and social networks the most to interact feel lonelier than those who use them for a different purpose. The digital connection does not seem to help, quite the opposite.
One of the factors that is most related to high levels of loneliness in adolescence is having fewer social relationships than desired but, above all, these relationships are not “real.”
Having exclusively long-distance or online relationships doubles the chances of feeling lonely, which seems to give face-to-face relationships a protective nature in terms of the feeling of feeling alone.
What can we do?
Once loneliness in adolescence has become an issue on the table, we have important challenges ahead. The first is to understand the phenomenon of loneliness through the eyes of the adolescents themselves in order to generate precise explanatory models.
Some studies based on focus groups emphasize the need to promote opportunities for face-to-face meetings in educational centers and leisure spaces.
The second challenge is to design instruments that allow early detection of those adolescents who feel alone in order to implement effective interventions as soon as possible to avoid the problem becoming chronic.
Finally, awareness about loneliness is necessary at this stage. The inclusion of the topic in the undergraduate and postgraduate training of professionals who work with adolescents is needed, as well as the adoption of measures at the level of public policies, such as promoting youth leisure spaces that facilitate social inclusion and belonging.
Implications for mental health
We are presented with a great challenge with important implications for the mental health of adolescents. Four out of ten say that their emotional distress is related to the feeling of feeling alone. The symptoms of anxiety and depression are, in addition to the effect, the cause of loneliness, since those who suffer from these symptoms tend to isolate themselves, thus increasing their discomfort.
We are probably facing one of those cases in which quality matters more than quantity. Our hyperconnected society may require fewer, but more meaningful connections.
#teenagers #increasingly #lonely
