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What Time Alone Offers: Narratives of Solitude From Adolescence to Older Adulthood

Solitude – the state of being alone and not physically with another – can be rewarding. The present research explored the potential benefits of solitude from a pragmatist approach: a ground-up, top-down perspective that is receptive to new knowledge but informed by theory. Participant recruitment wa...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Weinstein, Netta, Nguyen, Thuy-vy, Hansen, Heather
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8591032/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34790144
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.714518
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author Weinstein, Netta
Nguyen, Thuy-vy
Hansen, Heather
author_facet Weinstein, Netta
Nguyen, Thuy-vy
Hansen, Heather
author_sort Weinstein, Netta
collection PubMed
description Solitude – the state of being alone and not physically with another – can be rewarding. The present research explored the potential benefits of solitude from a pragmatist approach: a ground-up, top-down perspective that is receptive to new knowledge but informed by theory. Participant recruitment was stratified by age and gender, and the sample involved 2,035 individuals including adolescents (13–16 years), adults (35–55 years), or older adults (65+ years). Data were analyzed with a mixed-methods approach. Coded themes from brief narratives about solitude were extracted, and their frequencies (i.e., their salience to participants) were compared across the lifespan. Themes were then correlated with two indicators of well-being in solitude: self-determined motivation for solitude and peaceful mood. Several prominent themes emerged when talking about time spent in solitude. With the exception of feeling competent in solitude, which was described frequently but consistently unrelated to self-reported well-being regardless of age, benefits of solitude tended to shift over the lifespan. Some qualities, such as a sense of autonomy (self-connection and reliance; absence of pressure), were salient and consequential for everyone, but increasingly so from adolescence to older adulthood. Older adults also reported feeling most peaceful in solitude and described their social connection and alienation less frequently, suggesting they see solitude and social time as more distinct states. Findings are discussed in light of existing work on solitude across the lifespan, and theoretical frameworks that spoke well to the data (e.g., self-determination theory).
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spelling pubmed-85910322021-11-16 What Time Alone Offers: Narratives of Solitude From Adolescence to Older Adulthood Weinstein, Netta Nguyen, Thuy-vy Hansen, Heather Front Psychol Psychology Solitude – the state of being alone and not physically with another – can be rewarding. The present research explored the potential benefits of solitude from a pragmatist approach: a ground-up, top-down perspective that is receptive to new knowledge but informed by theory. Participant recruitment was stratified by age and gender, and the sample involved 2,035 individuals including adolescents (13–16 years), adults (35–55 years), or older adults (65+ years). Data were analyzed with a mixed-methods approach. Coded themes from brief narratives about solitude were extracted, and their frequencies (i.e., their salience to participants) were compared across the lifespan. Themes were then correlated with two indicators of well-being in solitude: self-determined motivation for solitude and peaceful mood. Several prominent themes emerged when talking about time spent in solitude. With the exception of feeling competent in solitude, which was described frequently but consistently unrelated to self-reported well-being regardless of age, benefits of solitude tended to shift over the lifespan. Some qualities, such as a sense of autonomy (self-connection and reliance; absence of pressure), were salient and consequential for everyone, but increasingly so from adolescence to older adulthood. Older adults also reported feeling most peaceful in solitude and described their social connection and alienation less frequently, suggesting they see solitude and social time as more distinct states. Findings are discussed in light of existing work on solitude across the lifespan, and theoretical frameworks that spoke well to the data (e.g., self-determination theory). Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-11-01 /pmc/articles/PMC8591032/ /pubmed/34790144 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.714518 Text en Copyright © 2021 Weinstein, Nguyen and Hansen. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Weinstein, Netta
Nguyen, Thuy-vy
Hansen, Heather
What Time Alone Offers: Narratives of Solitude From Adolescence to Older Adulthood
title What Time Alone Offers: Narratives of Solitude From Adolescence to Older Adulthood
title_full What Time Alone Offers: Narratives of Solitude From Adolescence to Older Adulthood
title_fullStr What Time Alone Offers: Narratives of Solitude From Adolescence to Older Adulthood
title_full_unstemmed What Time Alone Offers: Narratives of Solitude From Adolescence to Older Adulthood
title_short What Time Alone Offers: Narratives of Solitude From Adolescence to Older Adulthood
title_sort what time alone offers: narratives of solitude from adolescence to older adulthood
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8591032/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34790144
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.714518
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