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Loneliness and Mental Health: The Mediating Effect of Perceived Social Support

Social connectedness is a fundamental human need. The Evolutionary Theory of Loneliness (ETL) predicts that a lack of social connectedness has long-term mental and physical health consequences. Social support is a potential mechanism through which loneliness influences health. The present cross-sect...

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Autores principales: Hutten, Elody, Jongen, Ellen M. M., Vos, Anique E. C. C., van den Hout, Anja J. H. C., van Lankveld, Jacques J. D. M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8619017/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34831717
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182211963
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author Hutten, Elody
Jongen, Ellen M. M.
Vos, Anique E. C. C.
van den Hout, Anja J. H. C.
van Lankveld, Jacques J. D. M.
author_facet Hutten, Elody
Jongen, Ellen M. M.
Vos, Anique E. C. C.
van den Hout, Anja J. H. C.
van Lankveld, Jacques J. D. M.
author_sort Hutten, Elody
collection PubMed
description Social connectedness is a fundamental human need. The Evolutionary Theory of Loneliness (ETL) predicts that a lack of social connectedness has long-term mental and physical health consequences. Social support is a potential mechanism through which loneliness influences health. The present cross-sectional study examined the relationship between loneliness and mental health, and the mediating effects of social support in a Dutch adult sample (N = 187, age 20 to 70). The health variables included in the study are anxiety, depression, somatic symptoms as measured by the SCL-90, and the DSM-5 diagnosis somatic symptom disorder. The results indicated that social support partially mediated the relationship between loneliness and anxiety, depression, and somatic symptoms. These results indicate that social support partially explains the relationship between loneliness and physical and mental health issues. The relationship between loneliness and being diagnosed with somatic symptom disorder was not mediated by social support. This suggests that the mechanisms through which loneliness relates to either somatic symptoms or somatic symptom disorder are different.
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spelling pubmed-86190172021-11-27 Loneliness and Mental Health: The Mediating Effect of Perceived Social Support Hutten, Elody Jongen, Ellen M. M. Vos, Anique E. C. C. van den Hout, Anja J. H. C. van Lankveld, Jacques J. D. M. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Social connectedness is a fundamental human need. The Evolutionary Theory of Loneliness (ETL) predicts that a lack of social connectedness has long-term mental and physical health consequences. Social support is a potential mechanism through which loneliness influences health. The present cross-sectional study examined the relationship between loneliness and mental health, and the mediating effects of social support in a Dutch adult sample (N = 187, age 20 to 70). The health variables included in the study are anxiety, depression, somatic symptoms as measured by the SCL-90, and the DSM-5 diagnosis somatic symptom disorder. The results indicated that social support partially mediated the relationship between loneliness and anxiety, depression, and somatic symptoms. These results indicate that social support partially explains the relationship between loneliness and physical and mental health issues. The relationship between loneliness and being diagnosed with somatic symptom disorder was not mediated by social support. This suggests that the mechanisms through which loneliness relates to either somatic symptoms or somatic symptom disorder are different. MDPI 2021-11-14 /pmc/articles/PMC8619017/ /pubmed/34831717 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182211963 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Hutten, Elody
Jongen, Ellen M. M.
Vos, Anique E. C. C.
van den Hout, Anja J. H. C.
van Lankveld, Jacques J. D. M.
Loneliness and Mental Health: The Mediating Effect of Perceived Social Support
title Loneliness and Mental Health: The Mediating Effect of Perceived Social Support
title_full Loneliness and Mental Health: The Mediating Effect of Perceived Social Support
title_fullStr Loneliness and Mental Health: The Mediating Effect of Perceived Social Support
title_full_unstemmed Loneliness and Mental Health: The Mediating Effect of Perceived Social Support
title_short Loneliness and Mental Health: The Mediating Effect of Perceived Social Support
title_sort loneliness and mental health: the mediating effect of perceived social support
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8619017/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34831717
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182211963
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