I think, therefore I am: The contributions of threat interpretations in generating and managing youth loneliness

我思故我在：威胁解释对产生和管理青少年孤独感的贡献

• 批准号: ES/T00004X/2
• 负责人: Jennifer Lau
• 金额: $ 34.09万
• 依托单位: Queen Mary University of London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FT00004X%2F2
• 关键词: think; therefore; am; contributions; threat

Loneliness is a negative emotion that occurs when one perceives his/her social relationships and networks to fall short of his/her social needs. Because loneliness is thought to have evolved as a powerful motivator to connect with others and solicit their support, it may arise during periods of life that are characterised by social turbulence. One such period is youth, where there are major changes in the external social environment such as the amount of time spent with peers and in the emergence of new peer hierarchies and cliques - but also in internal factors, such as the need for peer approval and the aversiveness of peer rejection. Accordingly, as these social changes may bring about instability in social relationships, loneliness can arise to facilitate re-connection with others, and therefore be considered a normal part of growing up for many young people. However for some young people loneliness can be intense, upsetting and persistent, predicting poorer mental and physical health. Delivering interventions to manage loneliness in youth is therefore crucial, made more so as this may reflect a period of plasticity for learning more effective ways of regulating emotions. As some negative thinking styles such as a tendency to endorse threatening over benign expectations and explanations of ambiguous social situations is associated with youth loneliness, measuring and targeting these earlier in life may be a powerful 'vaccine' for reducing the risk of loneliness.However before any early interventions programs are planned around the targeting of threat interpretations, there are some key questions that need to addressed. First there is only one study showing that threat interpretations precede and predict risk for loneliness rather than reflect consequences. Disentangling these roles may inform whether it is useful to modify threat interpretations in order to alter loneliness. In addition it is not clear whether threat interpretations affect loneliness by influencing social withdrawal behaviour, as theories would suggest. Second all studies investigating threat interpretations in relation to loneliness have used questionnaires about hypothetical social scenarios rather than directly assess thoughts to real-life events. Establishing the relationship between threat interpretations and loneliness in everyday life is important, again for informing whether it is helpful to modify these thinking styles to alter lonely feelings. Finally, although methods have been developed for challenging threat interpretations related to other social behavioural problems like social anxiety, it is not clear if these methods are as relevant to and well tolerated by young people who are lonely.The goals of this research are to address these questions. Three studies will be performed. First a longitudinal study of around 1000 young people will be conducted to examine the cross-time relationships between threat interpretations, social withdrawal and loneliness with a nested interview study supplementing quantitative data. Second an ecological momentary assessment study that assesses threat interpretations to real social situations and loneliness at several times in the day for a week will be conducted to investigate these relationships in daily life. Finally, together with some young people we will develop some materials for a training program that aims to modify threat interpretations. These will then be presented to another group of young people to assess for relevance, acceptability and how helpful and feasible such an intervention is. Potential effectiveness at reducing loneliness and threat interpretations, and changing social behaviour will be considered.These studies will generate data to support further investigation into cognitive interventions for youthloneliness and contribute to the national dialogue on loneliness between professionals/practitioners working with youth, policymakers, the public and young people themselves.

孤独是一种消极情绪，当一个人感觉到他/她的社会关系和网络不能满足他/她的社会需求时，就会出现这种情绪。因为孤独被认为是一种与他人联系并寻求他们支持的强大动力，它可能出现在以社会动荡为特征的生命时期。一个这样的时期是青年时期，外部社会环境发生了重大变化，比如与同伴相处的时间，新的同伴等级制度和小团体的出现，但内部因素也发生了重大变化，比如需要同伴的认可和对同伴拒绝的厌恶。因此，由于这些社会变化可能会带来社会关系的不稳定，孤独可以促进与他人的重新联系，因此被认为是许多年轻人成长的正常部分。然而，对于一些年轻人来说，孤独可能是强烈的、令人不安的和持续的，预示着较差的心理和身体健康。因此，提供干预措施来管理青少年的孤独感是至关重要的，因为这可能反映了一段学习更有效的调节情绪方法的可塑性时期。由于一些消极的思维方式，如倾向于支持威胁而不是良性的期望，以及对模棱两可的社交情况的解释，与青少年的孤独感有关，因此在生命早期测量和针对这些思维方式，可能是减少孤独感风险的有力“疫苗”。然而，在围绕威胁解释的目标制定任何早期干预计划之前，有一些关键问题需要解决。首先，只有一项研究表明，威胁解释先于并预测孤独的风险，而不是反映后果。理清这些角色可能会告诉我们，为了改变孤独感而修改威胁解释是否有用。此外，还不清楚威胁解释是否像理论所暗示的那样，通过影响社会退缩行为来影响孤独。其次，所有调查与孤独相关的威胁解释的研究都使用了关于假设的社会场景的问卷调查，而不是直接评估对现实生活事件的看法。在日常生活中建立威胁解释和孤独之间的关系是很重要的，这也是为了告知是否有助于改变这些思维方式来改变孤独的感觉。最后，尽管已经开发出了一些方法来挑战与其他社会行为问题（如社交焦虑）相关的威胁解释，但尚不清楚这些方法是否与孤独的年轻人相关并能被他们很好地接受。本研究的目的就是要解决这些问题。将进行三项研究。首先，将对大约1000名年轻人进行纵向研究，通过嵌套访谈研究来补充定量数据，以检验威胁解释、社交退缩和孤独之间的跨时间关系。其次是生态瞬间评估研究，评估威胁对真实社会情境和孤独的解释，在一周内一天几次进行，以调查日常生活中的这些关系。最后，我们将与一些年轻人一起开发一些培训项目的材料，旨在修改对威胁的解读。然后，这些将提交给另一组年轻人，以评估相关性、可接受性以及这种干预的帮助和可行性。将考虑在减少孤独和威胁解释以及改变社会行为方面的潜在有效性。这些研究将产生数据，以支持对青年孤独的认知干预的进一步调查，并有助于与青年、政策制定者、公众和年轻人本身一起工作的专业人员/从业人员之间关于孤独的全国对话。

项目成果

Identifying characteristics of adolescents with persistent loneliness during COVID-19: A multi-country eight-wave longitudinal study

识别 COVID-19 期间持续孤独的青少年的特征：一项多国八波纵向研究

• DOI: 10.1002/jcv2.12206
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: JCPP Advances
• 作者: Riddleston L

Developing an interpretation bias modification training task for alleviating loneliness in young people

开发解释偏差修正训练任务以缓解年轻人的孤独感

• DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2023.104380
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Behaviour Research and Therapy
• 影响因子: 4.1
• 作者: Riddleston L

The Impact of Interpretation Biases on Psychological Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Prospective Study.

• DOI: 10.1007/s12529-022-10079-5
• 发表时间: 2023-03
• 期刊: International journal of behavioral medicine
• 影响因子: 2.7
• 作者: Chan FHF;Tao TJ;Jin J;Lau JYF;Barry TJ
• 通讯作者: Barry TJ

Young people's recommended coping strategies to manage social isolation: Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in the UK

年轻人管理社会隔离的建议应对策略：英国 COVID-19 大流行封锁的经验教训

• DOI: 10.1016/j.crbeha.2023.100133
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Current Research in Behavioral Sciences
• 作者: Jong A