Research Team for Social Participation and Healthy Aging, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for Geriatrics and Gerontology, 35-2 Sakae-cho, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo 173-0015, Japan.
College of Policy Science Department of Policy Science, Ritsumeikan University, 2-150 Iwakura-cho, Ibaraki, Osaka 567-8570, Japan.
J Affect Disord. 2024 Nov 15;365:466-473. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2024.08.020. Epub 2024 Aug 12.
Although a preference for solitude (PS) may mitigate the negative effects of social isolation (SI) owing to the enjoyment of time alone, its impact on mental health and its underlying factors remain unclear.
An Internet survey was conducted with 9000 individuals aged 20-79 years in September 2023 and the analyses were performed across three generations. SI was defined as contact with non-cohabitating family members or relatives and friends/neighbors less than once a week. The PS scale, which was used to assess whether a person preferred spending time alone, stratified respondents into three PS-level groups. Mental health status was evaluated using the K6 (distress symptoms), the WHO-5 (well-being), and the UCLA Loneliness Score (severity of loneliness) as the main outcomes. The mediation analyses assessed whether troublesomeness in socializing, a potential negative aspect of PS, could explain the association between PS and mental health status.
A mixed-design two-way analysis of covariance showed that both SI and PS had significant main effects on all outcomes without interactions across generations, indicating that SI and higher PS were associated with poor mental health status. The association between higher PS and poor mental status was mediated by socializing troublesomeness across generations.
The cross-sectional design prevented making causal inferences from the results. Additionally, sampling bias from Internet surveys may limit the generalizability of the results.
The results confirmed that there is no protective effect of PS on social isolation-related poor mental health. The hassle of socializing may partly explain why people with a higher PS experience poor mental status, including greater loneliness.
尽管独处偏好（PS）可能会减轻由于独自享受时间而导致的社交隔离（SI）的负面影响，但它对心理健康的影响及其潜在因素仍不清楚。
2023 年 9 月，通过互联网对 9000 名 20-79 岁的个体进行了调查，并在三个世代中进行了分析。SI 被定义为与非同居家庭成员或亲戚以及朋友/邻居每周接触少于一次。PS 量表用于评估一个人是否喜欢独自度过时间，将受访者分为三个 PS 水平组。使用 K6（困扰症状）、WHO-5（幸福感）和 UCLA 孤独感评分（孤独感严重程度）作为主要结局来评估心理健康状况。中介分析评估了社交困扰（PS 的一个潜在负面方面）是否可以解释 PS 与心理健康状况之间的关联。
混合设计双向方差分析表明，SI 和 PS 对所有结局均有显著的主效应，且各世代之间没有交互作用，这表明 SI 和更高的 PS 与较差的心理健康状况有关。PS 与较差的心理状态之间的关联通过各世代的社交困扰的中介作用来解释。
横断面设计阻止了从结果中得出因果推论。此外，来自互联网调查的抽样偏差可能会限制结果的普遍性。
结果证实 PS 对与社交隔离相关的不良心理健康没有保护作用。社交的麻烦可能部分解释了为什么 PS 较高的人会经历较差的心理状态，包括更大的孤独感。
