Department of Sociology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Gerontologist. 2021 Sep 13;61(7):e335-e344. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnaa082.
Since the 1980s, most researchers have agreed on the concept of social and emotional loneliness as an unacceptable and negatively experienced discrepancy between realized and desired interpersonal relationships. For other researchers, existential loneliness stems from the realization that a human being is fundamentally alone, with the accompanying emptiness, sadness, and longing. This article examines whether instruments to measure these conceptualizations indicate a multidimensional concept.
The 2019 observation of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (N = 1,316; aged 61-101 years; 52% women) included five direct questions about loneliness, the 11-item de Jong Gierveld social and emotional loneliness scale, and 14 items from the translated Existential Loneliness Questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted in Mplus.
Five factors were observed: direct questions, social and emotional loneliness, and loneliness in relationships and meaninglessness in life. The intercorrelations among all five factors were positive. Emotional loneliness correlated most strongly with direct questions.
Loneliness is multifaceted and means that one is not embedded in a personal network, misses closeness and intimacy, and lacks meaning in life. The emotional loneliness items most closely represent what people mean when they report loneliness.
自 20 世纪 80 年代以来，大多数研究人员都认同社会和情感孤独的概念，即人际关系的实际情况与期望之间存在不可接受的、负面的差距。而对于其他研究人员来说，存在性孤独源于对人类本质上是孤独的认识，以及随之而来的空虚、悲伤和渴望。本文探讨了用于测量这些概念的工具是否表明存在多维概念。
2019 年对阿姆斯特丹纵向老龄化研究（N=1316；年龄 61-101 岁；52%为女性）进行了观察，包括五个关于孤独的直接问题、11 项 de Jong Gierveld 社会和情感孤独量表以及 14 项翻译后的存在性孤独问卷。在 Mplus 中进行验证性因子分析。
观察到五个因素：直接问题、社会和情感孤独、关系孤独和生活无意义。所有五个因素之间的相关性均为正相关。情感孤独与直接问题相关性最强。
孤独是多方面的，意味着一个人没有融入个人网络，错过了亲密和亲密关系，并且生活缺乏意义。情感孤独的项目最能代表人们在报告孤独时的含义。
