How is interpersonal and intergroup mobility related to loneliness? Disentangling different facets of mobility may be crucial to understanding the link. We propose that the disruption of life and long-term relationships inherent in a mobile society (i.e., instability facet) is linked to higher loneliness, whereas the opportunities and freedom existing in a mobile society (i.e., freedom facet) are associated with lower loneliness. We developed a community stability scale to capture the former and examined the associations between different measures of mobility and loneliness. Across two studies, one in Japan (n = 881) and the other in two cultures (Japan and United States; n = 4,163) that vary in levels of mobility, both community stability (high stability) and relational mobility (high freedom) were associated with lower loneliness, which was partially mediated by social isolation. These findings suggest that whether mobility is linked to higher or lower loneliness depends on its specific facets.
AdamsG. (2005). The cultural grounding of personal relationship: Enemyship in North American and West African worlds. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(6), 948–968
2.
AdamsG.PlautV. C. (2003). The cultural grounding of personal relationship: Friendship in North American and West African worlds. Personal Relationships, 10(3), 333–347.
3.
AdlerN. E.EpelE. S.CastellazzoG.IckovicsJ. R. (2000). Relationship of subjective and objective social status with psychological and physiological functioning: Preliminary data in healthy, White women. Health Psychology, 19(6), 586–592.
4.
ArimotoA.TadakaE. (2019). Reliability and validity of Japanese versions of the UCLA loneliness scale version 3 for use among mothers with infants and toddlers: A cross-sectional study. BMC Women’s Health, 19, 1–9.
5.
BadmanR. P.NordströmR.UedaM.AkaishiR. (2022). Perceptions of social rigidity predict loneliness across the Japanese population. Scientific Reports, 12(1), 16073.
6.
BarangerD. A.FinsaasM. C.GoldsteinB. L.VizeC. E.LynamD. R.OlinoT. M. (2023). Tutorial: Power analyses for interaction effects in cross-sectional regressions. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 6(3), 1–13.
7.
BaumeisterR. F.LearyM. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117(3), 497–529.
8.
BueckerS.MaesM.DenissenJ. J.LuhmannM. (2020). Loneliness and the big five personality traits: A meta–analysis. European Journal of Personality, 34(1), 8–28.
9.
CacioppoJ. T.CacioppoS. (2018). The growing problem of loneliness. The Lancet, 391(10119), 426.
10.
ChiuC. Y.GelfandM. J.YamagishiT.ShteynbergG.WanC. (2010). Intersubjective culture: The role of intersubjective perceptions in cross-cultural research. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5(4), 482–493.
11.
HawkleyL. C.CacioppoJ. T. (2010). Loneliness matters: A theoretical and empirical review of consequences and mechanisms. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 40(2), 218–227.
12.
HawkleyL. C.HughesM. E.WaiteL. J.MasiC. M.ThistedR. A.CacioppoJ. T. (2008). From social structural factors to perceptions of relationship quality and loneliness: the Chicago health, aging, and social relations study. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 63(6), S375–S384.
13.
HaynieD. L.SouthS. J. (2005). Residential mobility and adolescent violence. Social Forces, 84(1), 361–374.
14.
HeuL. C.HansenN.van ZomerenM. (2021). Resolving the cultural loneliness paradox of choice: The role of cultural norms about individual choice regarding relationships in explaining loneliness in four European countries. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 38(7), 2053–2072.
15.
HeuL. C.van ZomerenM.HansenN. (2021). Does loneliness thrive in relational freedom or restriction? The culture-loneliness framework. Review of General Psychology, 25(1), 60–72.
16.
Holt-LunstadJ.SmithT. B.BakerM.HarrisT.StephensonD. (2015). Loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for mortality: A meta-analytic review. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(2), 227–237.
17.
HowardM. C. (2016). A review of exploratory factor analysis decisions and overview of current practices: What we are doing and how can we improve?International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 32(1), 51–62.
18.
HughesM. E.WaiteL. J.HawkleyL. C.CacioppoJ. T. (2004). A short scale for measuring loneliness in large surveys: Results from two population-based studies. Research on aging, 26(6), 655–672.
19.
IshiiK. (2017). Online communication with strong ties and subjective well-being in Japan. Computers in Human Behavior, 66, 129–137.
20.
KurimotoA.AwataS.OhkuboT.Tsubota-UtsugiM.AsayamaK.TakahashiK.SuenagaK.SatohH.ImaiY. (2011). Reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the abbreviated Lubben Social Network Scale. Nihon Ronen Igakkai zasshi. Japanese Journal of Geriatrics, 48(2), 149–157.
21.
LubbenJ.BlozikE.GillmannG.IliffeS.von Renteln KruseW.BeckJ. C.StuckA. E. (2006). Performance of an abbreviated version of the Lubben Social Network Scale among three European community-dwelling older adult populations. The Gerontologist, 46(4), 503–513.
22.
MagdolL. (2000). The people you know: The impact of residential mobility on mothers' social network ties. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 17(2), 183–204.
23.
Maya-JariegoI.HolgadoD. (2015). Living in the metropolitan area. Correlation of interurban mobility with the structural cohesion of personal networks and the originative sense of community. Psychosocial Intervention, 24(3), 185–190.
24.
MilfontT. L.FischerR. (2010). Testing measurement invariance across groups: Applications in cross-cultural research. International Journal of Psychological Research, 3(1), 111–130.
25.
MiyamotoS. (2012). The relationship between friendship network size and social self-esteem: Comparison between Japanese and American university students. Meiji Gakuin University Bulletin of Psychology, 22, 61–72. (in Japanese)
26.
MiyazakiG.SaekiD.YadaN.IkegamiT. (2018). The effects of living in urban environments on residents’ life satisfaction: Findings from two online surveys using a multifaceted urban living environment scale. The Japanese Journal of Psychology, 89, 50–60. (in Japanese)
27.
NamikawaT.TaniI.WakitaT.KumagaiR.NakaneA.NoguchiH. (2012). Development of a short form of the Japanese Big- Five Scale, and a test of its reliability and validity. The Japanese Journal of Psychology, 83, 91–99. (in Japanese)
28.
OishiS. (2010). The psychology of residential mobility: Implications for the self, social relationships, and well-being. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5, 5–21.
29.
OishiS.KesebirS.MiaoF. F.TalhelmT.EndoY.UchidaY.ShibanaiY.NorasakkunkitV. (2013). Residential mobility increases motivation to expand social network: But why?Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49(2), 217–223.
30.
OishiS.MiaoF. F.KooM.KislingJ.RatliffK. A. (2012). Residential mobility breeds familiarity-seeking. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102(1), 149–162.
31.
OishiS.SchugJ.YukiM. A. S. A. K. I.AxtJ. (2015). The psychology of residential and relational mobilities. In GelfandM. J.ChiuC. Y.HongY. Y. (Eds.), Handbook of advances in culture and psychology (Vol. 5, pp. 221–272). Oxford University Press.
32.
OkaM. (2013). Comfortable town to live in. Kodansha. (in Japanese)
33.
OkuyamaT.MiyamotoY.ItoA.AkaishiR.UedaM. (2025). Lay people’s views on a mobile society: Is it desirable or undesirable for a society to become mobile?Hitotsubashi Bulletin of Social Sciences, 17, 62–76. https://doi.org/10.15057/85842
34.
PackardV. O. (1972). A nation of strangers. David McKay.
35.
ParkB.KimM.YoungL. (2022). The role of relational mobility in relationship quality and well-being. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 39(12), 3728–3752.
36.
PeplauL. A.PerlmanD. (1982). Loneliness: A sourcebook of current theory, research and therapy. Wiley Interscience.
37.
PribeshS.DowneyD. B. (1999). Why are residential and school moves associated with poor school performance?. Demography, 36, 521–534.
38.
RubensteinC.ShaverP. (1982). The experience of loneliness. In PeplauL.A.PerlmanD. (Eds.), Loneliness: A sourcebook of current theory, research and therapy (pp. 206–223). Wiley Interscience.
39.
RudnevM.LytkinaE.DavidovE.SchmidtP.ZickA. (2018). Testing measurement invariance for a second-order factor: A cross-national test of the alienation scale. Methods, Data, Analyses, 12(1), 47–76.
40.
RussellD. W. (1996). UCLA Loneliness Scale (Version 3): Reliability, validity, and factor structure. Journal of Personality Assessment, 66, 20–40.
41.
SteptoeA.ShankarA.DemakakosP.WardleJ. (2013). Social isolation, loneliness, and all-cause mortality in older men and women. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(15), 5797–5801.
42.
ThomsonR.YukiM.TalhelmT.SchugJ.KitoM.AyanianA. H.BeckerJ. C.ChiuC.-Y.ChoiH.-S.FerreiraC. M.FülöpM.GulP.Houghton-IlleraA. M.JoasooM.JongJ.KavanaghC. M.KhutkyyD.ManziC.MarcinKowskaU. M., . . . VissermanM. L. (2018). Relational mobility predicts social behaviors in 39 countries and is tied to historical farming and threat. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(29), 7521–7526.
43.
YamagishiT.CookK. S.WatabeM. (1998). Uncertainty, trust, and commitment formation in the United States and Japan. American Journal of Sociology, 104(1), 165–194.
44.
YamagishiT.YamagishiM. (1994). Trust and commitment in the United States and Japan. Motivation and Emotion, 18(2), 129–166.
45.
YukiM.SchugJ. (2020). Psychological consequences of relational mobility. Current Opinion in Psychology, 32, 129–132.
46.
YukiM.SchugJ.HorikawaH.TakemuraK.SatoK.YokotaK.KamayaK. (2007). Development of a scale to measure perceptions of relational mobility in society (CERSS Working Paper 75). Hokkaido: Center for Experimental Research in Social Sciences, Hokkaido University.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
