A conceptual review of loneliness across this lifecourse This review from the What Works Centre for Wellbeing provides greater clarity around the definitions of loneliness and related concepts, and how they should be evaluated, measured and applied in policy and practice.
[1] Campaign to End Loneliness with Dr Heather McClelland (2023) Analysis of quarterly report data provided by the ONS from the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey for Jan-Dec 2022 using a representative sample of people aged 16 and over in Great Britain. Note: an average of 2,625 participants engaged with the ONS Opinions during each wave of the Lifestyle Survey over this period.
[2] Campaign to End Loneliness, The State of Loneliness 2023: ONS Data on loneliness in Britain (2023).
[3] Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, A connected society: a strategy for tackling loneliness (2018).
[4] D. Perlman and L. Peplau, ‘Toward a Social Psychology of Loneliness’ in Personal Relationships: 3. Relationships in Disorder, ed. by R. Gilmour and S. Duck (London: Academic Press), pp.31-56 (p.32).
[5] L Mansfield et al. A conceptual review of loneliness across the adult life course (16+ years): Synthesis of qualitative studies, What Works Wellbeing (2019), (p. 2; 18; 36).
[6] Hwang et al. ‘Loneliness and social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic’, International Psychogeriatrics 32.10 (2020), pp. 1217-1220.
[7] Wu, B. ‘Social isolation and loneliness among older adults in the context of COVID-19: a global challenges’, Global Health Research and Policy 5.27 (2020).
[8] Mental Health Foundation. All the lonely people (2022), (p.11).
[9] Holt-Lunstad, J. ‘Social Connection as a Public Health Issue: The Evidence and a Systemic Framework for Prioritizing the “Social” in Social Determinants of Health’, Annual Review of Public Health 43 (2022), pp.193-213.
[10] Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport. Mental Health and loneliness: relationship across life stages (2022).
[11] Mind, Loneliness, (2019), (p.2).
[12] C. Goodfellow et al, ‘Loneliness and personal wellbeing in young people: Moderating effects of individual, interpersonal, and community factors’, Journal of Adolescence 94.4 (2022), pp. 554-568, (p.555).
[13] Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, Tackling loneliness evidence review: executive summary (2023).
[14] K. Jopling, H. McClelland and E. Proffitt. Loneliness at work, British Red Cross (2023) (pp.7-11).
[15] J. Holt-Lunstad et al., ‘Loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for mortality: a meta-analytic review’, Perspectives on psychological science 10.2 (2015), pp. 227-237.
[16] NHS Digital, Health Survey for England, 2021, Part 2 Loneliness and wellbeing (2023).
[17] Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, Investigating factors associated with loneliness in adults in England (2022).
[18] Co-Op Foundation, A Friend in Need (2022).
[19] E. G. Brown, S Gallagher and A. Creaven, ‘Loneliness and acute stress reactivity: A systematic review of psychophysiological studies’, Psychophysiology 55.5 (2018).
[20] T. Matthews et al., ‘Sleeping with one eye open: loneliness and sleep quality in young adults’, Psychological Medicine 47.12 (2017), pp. 2177-2186 (p.2182).
[21] S. C. Griffin et al., ‘Loneliness and sleep: A systematic review and meta-analysis’, Health Psychology Open 7:1 (2020).
[22] R. Jefferson, M. Barreto, L. Verity and P. Qualter, ‘Loneliness During the School Years: How It Affects Learning and How Schools Can Help’, Journal of School Health 93.5 (2023), pp.428-435.
[23] S. Peytrignet, S. Garforth-Bles and K. Koehane, Loneliness monetisation report: Analysis for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (2020) (p.1).
[24] New Economics Foundation and Co-Op Foundation, The Cost of Loneliness to UK Employers (2017) (p.v).
