The socioeconomic consequences of loneliness: Evidence from a nationally representative longitudinal study of young adults
The socioeconomic consequences of loneliness: Evidence from a nationally representative longitudinal study of young adults
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孤独的社会经济后果：来自全国代表性年轻人纵向研究的证据
DOI：
10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.116697
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发表时间：
2024
影响因子：
5.4
通讯作者：
Bryan B
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bryan B
近年来，孤独带来的负面健康后果导致人们越来越关注孤独的经济成本。孤独还可能通过影响社会经济地位，更直接地造成经济负担。到目前为止，许多研究都集中在就业状况上，这些就业状况可能没有完全反映社会经济状况，而且依赖于横截面数据，留下了关于这种关联的稳健性和反向因果关系的问题。本研究使用纵向数据来测试孤独与青年时期社会地位的多个指标之间的预期关联，具体地说，12岁时孤独的参与者是否更有可能失业、教育和培训(NEET)，以及作为年轻人的就业能力和主观社会地位是否较低。这些数据来自环境风险(E-Risk)纵向双胞胎研究，该研究对1994-1995年间出生在英格兰和威尔士的2232人进行了出生队列研究。在12岁、18岁和26岁时对孤独感和主观社会地位进行了测量。在18岁时对就业能力和NEET状况进行了评估。结果表明，12岁时较大的孤独感可能与年轻人的就业能力降低和社会地位低下有关。在使用兄弟姐妹对照设计控制一系列混杂因素时，年轻人的孤独与较低的社会地位之间的关联是很强的。结果还表明，孤独与青春期和青春期主观社会地位的降低是单向相关的。总体而言，我们的发现表明，由于就业能力和社会地位的降低，孤独可能会给经济带来直接成本，这突显了在生命早期解决孤独的重要性。
The negative health consequences of loneliness have led to increasing concern about the economic cost of loneliness in recent years. Loneliness may also incur an economic burden more directly, by impacting socioeconomic position. Much of the research to date has focused on employment status which may not fully capture socioeconomic position and has relied on cross-sectional data, leaving questions around the robustness of the association and reverse causation. The present study used longitudinal data to test prospective associations between loneliness and multiple indicators of social position in young adulthood, specifically, whether participants who were lonelier at age 12 were more likely to be out of employment, education and training (NEET) and lower on employability and subjective social status as young adults. The data were drawn from the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study, a birth cohort of 2,232 individuals born in England and Wales during 1994–1995. Loneliness and subjective social status were measured at ages 12, 18 and 26. Employability and NEET status were assessed at age 18. Findings indicate that greater loneliness at age 12 was prospectively associated with reduced employability and lower social status in young adulthood. The association between loneliness and lower social status in young adulthood was robust when controlling for a range of confounders using a sibling-control design. Results also indicate that loneliness is unidirectionally associated with reduced subjective social status across adolescence and young adulthood. Overall, our findings suggest that loneliness may have direct costs to the economy resulting from reduced employability and social position, underlining the importance of addressing loneliness early in life.