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2024-03-06 05:00:00
Loneliness contributes to stress, anxiety and depression, weakening emotional well-being due to the lack of solid social connections (Illustrative Image Infobae)
Loneliness is no longer a concern only for adults. Young people are also victims of this feeling, which worsened following the pandemic and was strengthened with the rise of social networks.
Psychology takes loneliness as a negative point linked to the imbalance between the amount of affection that the person requires and the amount they believe they receive. Under this line, “feeling alone” causes greater isolation and reinforces negative thoughts and facets that, above all, lead to consequences that impact life from social to academic and work. Loneliness, in addition to affecting physical health, impacts mental health, and contributes to stress, anxiety and depression, directly influencing emotional well-being.
Why does it affect young people? Different international studies confirm that unwanted loneliness especially affects adolescence because this is a stage of transition from childhood to adulthood that involves biological, psychological, social changes, crises, conflicts and contradictions.
Florencia Alfie (MN 47873), a graduate in Psychology from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), told Infobae: “Loneliness is a feeling that also affects youth – harshly – and it not only affects older people. . The most serious indicators of loneliness occur among young people: 1 in 4, between 16 and 29 years old, feels alone and has maintained this feeling for more than a year.
Social exclusion, communication difficulties and lack of support contribute to school loneliness, negatively affecting academic performance (Illustrative image Infobae)
“’I don’t fit in’, ‘I find it difficult to relate to others’, ‘I don’t have a partner, ‘I live on the run and I don’t have time to lead an active social life’, ‘My family lives far away’, ‘No one cares regarding me’, ‘ Everyone looks for superficial relationships’; These are some of the reasons that young people mention as causing their feelings of loneliness,” added Alfie.
The expert added that loneliness is a risk factor for physical and psychological health: “When it worsens and lasts over time, it can have a great impact, having a negative impact on the state of mind, the relationship with environment and quality of life in general. Unwanted loneliness can contribute to the development of mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, decreased academic performance, and difficulty relating to others. Those adolescents who experience unwanted loneliness may have difficulty concentrating on their studies and feel less motivated to participate in social activities.”
To give an overview of this problem, a report of Youth and Solitude in Spain, published in February 2024, prepared by SoledadES (State Observatory of Unwanted Solitude), in collaboration with Ayuda en Acción, ONCE Foundation and ONCE social group, revealed that 25.5% of young Spaniards between 16 and 29 years old declare that they feel in a situation of loneliness at the present moment.
According to María Montero y López Lena, researcher and professor at the Faculty of Psychology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), she commented in a recent note in Infobae that “the lack of social connection carries an equivalent, or even greater, risk. of premature death associated with other more well-known danger factors, such as smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, obesity or air pollution.
Loneliness can be related to other risk factors such as excessive alcohol and substance consumption (Illustrative Image Infobae)
Ms. Alfie mentioned that, although it has not been possible to identify any factor that causes loneliness with certainty, it can be stated that there are situations that can push it: “For example, economic difficulties, unemployment, bullying, and absence of places to interact: young people use the Internet more and they lack real scenarios where they can build relationships!” “Social networks leave less space for face-to-face contact, and this probably influences the appearance of unwanted loneliness. Nowadays everything is virtual: many have virtual friends whom they never get to meet,” highlighted the psychologist.
Additionally, school loneliness can negatively affect concentration and motivation for learning. Lonely students may experience difficulty participating in classes, collaborating on projects, and seeking help when they need it. Among the factors that contribute to school loneliness, according to the UNAM expert are:
- Social exclusion: Closed groups and exclusionary dynamics can leave some students feeling marginalized, contributing to loneliness.
- Communication difficulties: Lack of social skills or shyness can cause some students to withdraw and isolate themselves.
- Lack of support: The absence of an adequate support system in the school environment can leave students without resources to deal with social challenges.
The risk factors for loneliness in young people that stand out in the study Spanish prepared by SoledadES are:
Research confirms that bullying contributes significantly to the isolation and loneliness of young people (Illustrative Image Infobae)
- Friendship relationships play a fundamental role in unwanted loneliness, according to the report. This importance is given in the quantity of relationships, their quality and their presence. On the other hand, relationships in the family environment, and especially in the work or study environment, are less relevant to explain loneliness. The quantity of relationships with family is not a significant factor in loneliness, but their quality is.
- Harassment. People who have suffered bullying at school or at work have a 37.2% higher risk of suffering from loneliness. According to Unicef, when we talk regarding bullying or harassment, we are referring to physical and/or psychological persecution carried out by one student once morest another in a negative, continuous and intentional way. This same action can also take place on the Internet, which is why it is called cyberbullying.
- Mental health. “People with perceived or diagnosed mental health problems are 2.5 times more likely to suffer from unwanted loneliness; people who perceive that they suffer from anxiety or depression 89.2% more; people who acknowledge having low self-esteem 83.2% more and those who have had suicidal thoughts 81.1% more,” the report states.
- Poverty: increases the risk of loneliness. Suffering from moderate poverty or having difficulties making ends meet increases the probability of feeling lonely by 38.5%. The prevalence of loneliness in young people who live in a shared apartment or in their own home is higher than among young people who live with their parents.
The state of New York denounced social networks, blaming them for the increase in mental health problems in young people – (Illustrative Image Infobae)
- Digital social networks. The report explains that they are not important for loneliness: “The intensity and frequency of use do not have an effect on unwanted loneliness, however, the presence of relationships with friends does.”
Dr. Silvia Ongini, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Department of Pediatrics at the Hospital de Clínicas José de San Martín and president of the Center for the Prevention and Care of Sexual Abuse in Childhood and Adolescence (CePasi), explained to Infobae in a recent note: “The Peer social ties tend to be often labile, because in-person is not the same as virtuality; Everything that can be transmitted and contained in one-on-one or in a face-to-face group setting is not the same as a virtual one, because there are a lot of emotional and affective nuances that emoticons are not going to replace. Many times this generates a void and an unsatisfied need for company and, in addition, there is the devastating other side of these issues of cancellation or escraches where young people end up being excluded and cornered, making them feel really thrown into the void.”
New York recently sued five social networks (TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and YouTube) because it linked them to the mental health crisis in children and young people by manipulating and making them addicted to certain applications and producing depression, anxiety, feelings of isolation and even suicide. It should be noted that suicide is the fourth cause of death among young people between 15 and 29 years old, according to the World Health Organization.
According to Ms. Alfie, some strategies to avoid unwanted loneliness are:
Specialists speak out in favor of inclusive and emotional teaching as a means to reduce loneliness in schools (Illustrative image Infobae)
- Encourage and encourage adolescents to build and maintain positive relationships with their peers and family.
- Encourage teens to participate in extracurricular activities: sports, church, youth centers, and interest groups that allow them to meet new people and develop other connections.
- Promote an environment in which adolescents feel comfortable and heard sharing their concerns and feelings, without feeling judged, both at home and at school.
Based on the results of the Spanish Observatory report, a set of diverse actions are proposed that pursue three types of objectives:
- Prevent: actions aimed at reducing new cases of youth loneliness, trying to prevent its appearance.
- Detect: actions aimed at identifying existing cases of youth loneliness, at a general and particular level.
- Intervene: actions aimed at reducing existing youth loneliness.
And it provides eight recommendations to protect the mental health of young people, from schools and families:
Promote an environment in which adolescents feel comfortable and heard sharing their concerns and feelings, without feeling judged, both at home and at school
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