•Loneliness often emerged from childhood life events such as bullying, family issues, or illness impacting future relationships.•Negative self-talk, feelings of inadequacy, and intrusive thoughts ...influenced mental health and relationships.•Diverse coping strategies had varying impacts on well-being.•Insights on coping strategies and loneliness experiences of emerging adults can help inform interventions aimed at reducing loneliness.•Cultural probes lead to creation of an innovative loneliness dialogue tool.
Loneliness has become a great public health concern in the Western world, with emerging adults being particularly vulnerable. Prolonged loneliness in emerging adults is associated with poor mental health such as symptoms of depression and anxiety that may have negative implications for health and well-being in later life.
To explore and gain a deeper understanding of how loneliness develops over time and how it is experienced by emerging adults in their everyday life.
The study is a thematic analysis of qualitative data consisting of cultural probes and in-depth interviews. Participants were recruited through targeted advertising on social media. During a week, participants aged 18 to 25 years old completed a cultural probe comprising open and evocative activities. These activities provided an opportunity for participants to explore their day-to-day existence, thereby contributing to the portrayal of their individual stories concerning loneliness in everyday life. After reviews of the cultural probes, in-depth interviews were conducted.
Participants were 21 emerging adults (mean age 21.3), three men and 18 women. Following thematic analysis of the cultural probe material and interview data, three overarching themes were conceptualized: 1) The many faces of loneliness, 2) The interplay between low self-esteem, intrusive thoughts, and mental health in shaping loneliness, and 3) The duality of coping strategies.
The findings from this qualitative study offer in-depth insights into the experience of loneliness among emerging adults, highlighting its multifaceted nature and interplay with mental health. Participants' narratives revealed a duality of coping strategies, where engaging in distracting activities provided temporary relief but perpetuated long-term loneliness, and attempts to reconnect with others were sometimes hindered by past experiences. The findings contribute to a richer understanding of loneliness during this pivotal life phase, with implications for interventions needed to address social disconnectedness, thereby contributing to the broader conversation on mental health and well-being.
Anxiety disorders are prevalent and associated with functional impairments. Outcome research has focused on symptom reduction, rather than positive factors such as life satisfaction and improved ...functioning. We review the impact of youth anxiety disorders and elevated anxiety symptoms on academic, occupational, family, social, and legal functioning. Emphasis is placed on the degree to which developmental trajectories differ for youth with and without anxiety disorders. In some areas, psychopathology generally, rather than anxiety specifically, is associated with functional impairment. Other studies support youth anxiety as a unique predictor of functional impairment. In particular, social anxiety is associated with impairments in social functioning throughout development. The short- and long-term impacts of anxiety treatment in youth are discussed. Last, research directions are suggested.
Abstract
Introduction
Solitude represents an important context for emerging adults' well‐being; but to date, little is known about
how
emerging adults spend their time alone. The goals of this study ...were to: (1) describe and characterize solitary activities among emerging adults attending university; (2) examine links between solitary activities and indices of adjustment; and (3) explore the moderating role of affinity for solitude in these associations.
Methods
Participants were
N
= 1798 university students aged 18–25 years (
M
age
= 19.73,
SD
= 1.46; 59.7% female) who completed assessments of how/why they spend time alone and indices of psychosocial adjustment (e.g., well‐being, psychological distress, loneliness, and aloneliness).
Results
Emerging adults who spent time alone predominantly thinking reported poor adjustment outcomes (i.e., higher loneliness and psychological distress, and lower well‐being) and dissatisfaction with solitude, whereas those who engaged in active leisure activities or passive technology use while alone reported lower psychological distress and higher satisfaction with solitude. The negative implications of doing nothing were not attenuated at higher levels of affinity for solitude.
Discussion
These findings suggest that some solitary activities are more beneficial than others.
Late emerging adulthood is pivotal for identity exploration and development and is interrelated with life satisfaction. In the development of identity and life satisfaction, it is important to have a ...stable employment status that supports the foundation of life. However, the interrelationships among identity, life satisfaction, and employment status in late emerging adulthood are unclear. Using a two-wave longitudinal survey, this study examined identity development and whether the relationship between identity and life satisfaction varies by employment status. Participants included 875 Japanese emerging adults (65.5% women, M
= 24.74, SD
= 0.44). Multivariate analysis of variance showed that identity synthesis decreased for those who lost their jobs or those who changed from being full-time to part-time employment. Additionally, individuals with full-time employment had higher identity synthesis and lower confusion than those with part-time or no employment. Multi-group path analysis indicated that identity synthesis was positively associated with life satisfaction and confusion was negatively associated, and these relationships did not differ by employment status. These findings suggest that identity development in late emerging adulthood varies by employment status and that the association between identity and life satisfaction may not be moderated by employment status. Overall, this study contributes to elucidating the characteristics of identity development along employment status and its relationship to life satisfaction in late emerging adulthood.
Decades of research has found support for the motivational model of alcohol use at the between-person level, yet research on event-level drinking motives is in its nascent stage. Similarly, drinking ...context has been largely ignored in studies of day-level motives. Therefore, the present study sought to test whether drinking context mediates the relation between affect and motivation on drinking outcomes at both day and person levels.
Emerging adults who drank in solitary and social settings (
= 107; 61.2% female) completed 21 days ecological momentary assessments. Affect was assessed during morning/afternoon reports; drinking motives were assessed during afternoon reports; and past-night drinking context, drinking quantity, and negative consequences were assessed during next morning reports. Two-level multilevel structural equation models tested whether within-person and between-person levels of predrinking affect were indirectly associated with negative consequences through predrinking motives, drinking context (social vs. solitary), and drinking quantity.
At the day and person levels, positive affect was associated with higher social and enhancement motives. At the day level, positive affect indirectly predicted consequences through social motives, social (vs. solitary) drinking, and drinking quantity, whereas positive affect indirectly predicted consequences through enhancement motives and drinking quantity above and beyond context. At the day and person levels, negative affect was associated with coping motives, but coping was not associated with context, drinking quantity, nor consequences.
Findings suggest that positive affect was linked to drinking outcomes through motives (enhancement and social) and contexts (social), whereas negative affect was not. Findings suggest that positively valenced drinking motives may be an important just-in-time intervention target. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
This study aimed to examine the mediating effect of identity in the relationships among the instability of self-image, self-focus, and psychological stress responses. University students and ...graduates were surveyed using a questionnaire to collect data. By performing structural equation modeling, the instability of self-image was found to enhance rumination and identity confusion, and both increased global psychological stress responses. Reflection strengthened identity synthesis and weakened confusion. While confusion increased psychological stress responses, synthesis only weakened apathy. A mediation analysis was performed with the same model. Identity was found to partially mediate the relationship between rumination and psychological stress response and completely mediate the relationship between reflection and psychological stress responses. Based on these results, it can be inferred that identity problem may lead to mental health problems caused by rumination and confusion stemming from the instability of self-image. Interventions targeting the instability of self-image and rumination may be effective in preventing mental health problems.
The transition to adulthood, emerging adulthood (EA), is characterized by the reorganization of multiple systems and societal scaffolding coming together to uniquely contribute to development. As a ...developmental turning point, EA has been a recent focus for researchers investigating both resilience and psychopathology. Resilience scales used in EA samples, within the United States are limited because many have not been validated in EA samples and they often do not assess both social/individual and cognitive/interpersonal determinants of resilience. The purpose of this study was to investigate the measurement models and reliability of commonly used resilience scales in the United States to include the Resilience Scale (RS-25; RS-10), the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale CD-RISC-25; CD-RISC-10), and the Scale of Protective Factors (SPF-24). We used an EA sample of 421 college students reporting significant stress or trauma. The results indicated that the CD-RISC-10, and the SPF-24 are psychometrically sound measures of overall resilience in EA. While the CD-RISC-10 has the benefit of clinical criteria for interpreting scores, the SPF-24 is a more comprehensive measure of resilience due to the representation of social/interpersonal in addition to cognitive/individual determinants of resilience. Practical and clinical implications as well as future directions are discussed.
•The CD-RISC-10 and the SPF-24 achieved good model fit in an emerging adult sample.•The CD-RISC-10 has clinical criteria for indicating high versus low resilience.•The CD-RISC-10 measures a cognitive/individual factor representing resilience.•The SPF-24 measures both social/interpersonal and cognitive/individual resilience.•The SPF-24 enables clinicians/researchers to identify strengths and deficits.
The current study assessed the association between traditional masculine norms and cannabis use, hard drug use (e.g., amphetamines and cocaine), and hazardous alcohol use at two-year follow-up. The ...sample comprised 2170 Australian emerging adult men (18–29 years old) who completed Wave 1 (2013–2014) and Wave 2 (2015–2016) of the Ten to Men: The Australian Longitudinal Study on Male Health survey. Lagged logistic regressions showed that the playboy (Odds Ratio OR ranging 1.30–1.65) and risk-taking (OR ranging 1.35–1.96) norms conveyed risk for each of hazardous alcohol use, cannabis use, and hard drug use at two-year follow-up. Several outcome-specific findings were also demonstrated across the hegemonically-masculine norms, with increased adherence to certain hegemonically-masculine norms conveying risk for engagement in substance use in emerging adult men. These findings suggest that treatments focusing on improving social supports might help emerging men avoid substance abuse issues.
Behavioral economic demand for cannabis and alcohol is robustly associated with cannabis use and alcohol use, respectively. However, few studies have examined the contributions of cannabis and ...alcohol demand to simultaneous cannabis and alcohol use, which is common among young adults. We examined prospective associations of cannabis demand and alcohol demand with propensity for simultaneous use (broadly defined as using both cannabis and alcohol in the same day) and with cannabis and alcohol consumption during simultaneous use days among young adults. Young adults reporting simultaneous use ( N = 107) completed a Marijuana Purchase Task assessing cannabis demand and an Alcohol Purchase Task assessing alcohol demand. They then completed daily smartphone surveys over 21 days assessing cannabis and alcohol use. Multilevel models revealed that higher cannabis demand (i.e., higher O max, P max, and intensity; lower elasticity) was uniquely associated with greater propensity for simultaneous use relative to nonuse. In addition, higher alcohol demand (lower elasticity) was uniquely associated with greater propensity for simultaneous use relative to cannabis-only use, and higher cannabis demand (higher break point and intensity, lower elasticity) was uniquely associated with greater propensity for simultaneous use relative to alcohol-only use. Furthermore, in models limited to simultaneous use days, greater cannabis demand (higher O max, lower elasticity) and lower alcohol demand (higher elasticity) were uniquely associated with greater overall cannabis flower consumption, and higher alcohol demand (higher O max, lower elasticity) was uniquely associated with greater overall alcohol consumption. Results suggest that individual differences in cannabis and alcohol demand may contribute to simultaneous cannabis and alcohol use behaviors in a substance-specific pattern. Furthermore, cannabis demand may more strongly drive the tendency to engage in simultaneous use (vs. nonuse) relative to alcohol demand. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)
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