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Deeply lonely in the borderland between childhood and adulthood - Experiences of existential loneliness as narrated by adolescents
BACKGROUND: Adolescence is associated with different feelings and experiences that can negatively affect adolescents’ health and well-being. In the transition between childhood and adulthood, experiences of loneliness are common. A deep form of loneliness is described as existential loneliness. Stud...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Taylor & Francis
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9553172/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36204822 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17482631.2022.2132653 |
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author | Garnow, Tide Garmy, Pernilla Edberg, Anna-Karin Einberg, Eva-Lena |
author_facet | Garnow, Tide Garmy, Pernilla Edberg, Anna-Karin Einberg, Eva-Lena |
author_sort | Garnow, Tide |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Adolescence is associated with different feelings and experiences that can negatively affect adolescents’ health and well-being. In the transition between childhood and adulthood, experiences of loneliness are common. A deep form of loneliness is described as existential loneliness. Studies among adults have shown that existential loneliness often arises in connection with transitions and is related to suffering, but may lead to positive experiences when acknowledged and addressed. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore adolescents’ experiences of existential loneliness. METHODS: This was an exploratory-descriptive qualitative study based on narrative interviews with 16 adolescents (median age 17.5). The data were analysed inductively using qualitative content analysis. FINDINGS: Existential loneliness among adolescents was related to experiences of social exclusion and “in-betweenness”. To alleviate their suffering, the adolescents tried to avoid burdensome feelings and thoughts, and they chose between sharing or not sharing their inner lives with someone else. CONCLUSIONS: It is important to support adolescents’ sense of belonging, and they may need assistance in dealing with existential loneliness, as well as with finding constructive and healthy ways of recuperating from the suffering. Professionals need knowledge of existential loneliness to promote adolescents’ existential health and well-being. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9553172 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Taylor & Francis |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-95531722022-10-12 Deeply lonely in the borderland between childhood and adulthood - Experiences of existential loneliness as narrated by adolescents Garnow, Tide Garmy, Pernilla Edberg, Anna-Karin Einberg, Eva-Lena Int J Qual Stud Health Well-being Empirical Studies BACKGROUND: Adolescence is associated with different feelings and experiences that can negatively affect adolescents’ health and well-being. In the transition between childhood and adulthood, experiences of loneliness are common. A deep form of loneliness is described as existential loneliness. Studies among adults have shown that existential loneliness often arises in connection with transitions and is related to suffering, but may lead to positive experiences when acknowledged and addressed. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore adolescents’ experiences of existential loneliness. METHODS: This was an exploratory-descriptive qualitative study based on narrative interviews with 16 adolescents (median age 17.5). The data were analysed inductively using qualitative content analysis. FINDINGS: Existential loneliness among adolescents was related to experiences of social exclusion and “in-betweenness”. To alleviate their suffering, the adolescents tried to avoid burdensome feelings and thoughts, and they chose between sharing or not sharing their inner lives with someone else. CONCLUSIONS: It is important to support adolescents’ sense of belonging, and they may need assistance in dealing with existential loneliness, as well as with finding constructive and healthy ways of recuperating from the suffering. Professionals need knowledge of existential loneliness to promote adolescents’ existential health and well-being. Taylor & Francis 2022-10-06 /pmc/articles/PMC9553172/ /pubmed/36204822 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17482631.2022.2132653 Text en © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Empirical Studies Garnow, Tide Garmy, Pernilla Edberg, Anna-Karin Einberg, Eva-Lena Deeply lonely in the borderland between childhood and adulthood - Experiences of existential loneliness as narrated by adolescents |
title | Deeply lonely in the borderland between childhood and adulthood - Experiences of existential loneliness as narrated by adolescents |
title_full | Deeply lonely in the borderland between childhood and adulthood - Experiences of existential loneliness as narrated by adolescents |
title_fullStr | Deeply lonely in the borderland between childhood and adulthood - Experiences of existential loneliness as narrated by adolescents |
title_full_unstemmed | Deeply lonely in the borderland between childhood and adulthood - Experiences of existential loneliness as narrated by adolescents |
title_short | Deeply lonely in the borderland between childhood and adulthood - Experiences of existential loneliness as narrated by adolescents |
title_sort | deeply lonely in the borderland between childhood and adulthood - experiences of existential loneliness as narrated by adolescents |
topic | Empirical Studies |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9553172/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36204822 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17482631.2022.2132653 |
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