Who stays lonely and who does not? Identifying distinct loneliness trajectories after social loss events

Abstract

Persistent feelings of loneliness can have serious consequences for psychological and physical health. Yet, to date, it remains unclear who is most vulnerable to entering the self-reinforcing loop of loneliness through which loneliness can become persistent. This preregistered study aimed to predict who becomes and stays lonely after social loss events by investigating data from the Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences (LISS). We identified 640 individuals (M _age = 39.5 years, SD _age = 17.7, 57.8% females) who experienced a social loss event and reported longitudinal data on emotional and social loneliness. We applied Latent Growth Mixture Modeling (LGMM) to uncover different trajectories of the two loneliness dimensions and identified groups with distinct loneliness trajectories (e.g., low stable, high stable, recovery). Notably, we identified one group that experienced a long-lasting increase in emotional loneliness and therefore seems to be most vulnerable entering the self-reinforcing loop. The probability of belonging to this group was predicted by pre-event age and anxiety levels. Overall, this study highlights the importance of examining loneliness trajectories in a more nuanced way in order to detect individuals with vulnerable trajectories.