Kwan Celia, Gitimoghaddam Mojgan, Collet Jean-Paul
Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada.
BC Children's Hospital Research Institute, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4H4, Canada.
Brain Sci. 2020 Oct 28;10(11):786. doi: 10.3390/brainsci10110786.
Loneliness and social isolation have negative consequences on physical and mental health in both adult and pediatric populations. Children with neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDD) are often excluded and experience more loneliness than their typically developing peers. This scoping review aims to identify the type of studies conducted in children with NDD to determine the effects of loneliness and/or social isolation. Three electronic databases (Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsychINFO) were searched from inception until 5 February 2019. Two independent reviewers screened the citations for inclusion and extracted data from the included articles. Quantitative (i.e., frequency analysis) and qualitative analyses (i.e., content analysis) were completed. From our search, 5768 citations were screened, 29 were read in full, and 12 were included. Ten were case-control comparisons with cross-sectional assessment of various outcomes, which limited inference. Autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and learning disorder were the most commonly studied NDD. This review showed that loneliness among children with NDD was associated with negative consequences on mental health, behaviour, and psychosocial/emotional development, with a likely long-term impact in adulthood. Lack of research in this area suggests that loneliness is not yet considered a problem in children with NDD. More studies are warranted using prospective designs and a larger sample size with a focus on the dynamic aspect of loneliness development.
孤独和社会隔离对成人和儿童的身心健康都会产生负面影响。患有神经发育障碍（NDD）的儿童往往受到排斥，比发育正常的同龄人经历更多的孤独感。本综述旨在确定针对患有NDD的儿童开展的研究类型，以确定孤独和/或社会隔离的影响。检索了三个电子数据库（Ovid MEDLINE、EMBASE、PsychINFO），检索时间从建库至2019年2月5日。两名独立评审员筛选纳入的文献，并从纳入的文章中提取数据。完成了定量分析（即频率分析）和定性分析（即内容分析）。通过检索，共筛选了5768篇文献，阅读了其中29篇的全文，纳入了12篇。其中10篇是病例对照比较，对各种结果进行横断面评估，这限制了推断。自闭症谱系障碍、注意力缺陷多动障碍和学习障碍是最常被研究的神经发育障碍。本综述表明，患有NDD的儿童中的孤独感与对心理健康、行为以及心理社会/情感发展的负面影响相关，可能对成年期产生长期影响。该领域缺乏研究表明，孤独感尚未被视为患有NDD的儿童中的一个问题。有必要开展更多研究，采用前瞻性设计和更大的样本量，重点关注孤独感发展的动态方面。
