Solitude as Opportunity for Rest in Everyday Life of Adults across the Lifespan

独处是成年人一生中日常生活中休息的机会

• 批准号: ES/W002256/1
• 负责人: Thuy-Vy Nguyen
• 金额: $ 30.78万
• 依托单位: Durham University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FW002256%2F1
• 关键词: Solitude; Opportunity; Rest; Everyday; Life

A cross-cultural survey of adults around the world demonstrates the benefit of solitude to daily rest - an essential tool to mental health that modern society continues to ignore. My research during Ph.D. training showed that only 15 minutes of solitude can help us rid of rousing emotions and offer opportunities for quiet reflection. Yet, despite the well-documented benefits of solitude, we cannot seem to shake off the idea that solitude is negative and challenging. It is intuitive to attribute enjoyment of solitude to a matter of individual preference. This is reflected in the messages that we hear often that introverts enjoy solitude better. Modern society also continues to reinforce salient image of a sad loner. This narrow perspective on solitude creates two problems. First, it paints a negative light around our daily experiences of solitude. Second, it prevents us from considering environmental and social factors that might create barriers to pursue solitude and embrace this time for its regulatory benefits. Observations across adulthood suggest that the desire for solitude and the ability to benefit from it depend on life situations. For emerging adults, salient struggles around time spent alone emerge during transition into being independent from parental care, such as for those in their first year at university. For this group, new social environment creates pressure to socialise and fear of missing out, making time spent alone more isolating and intolerable. As a result, emerging adults have less desire for solitude despite that they find it beneficial for productivity and emotion regulation. On the other hand, as people grow older and acquire more responsibilities, they have less opportunities for time alone and solitude becomes a craved luxury. This is particularly true for working mothers with young children as women still disproportionally take on more care responsibilities while working full time. Many mothers report not being able to find time for themselves or to enjoy personal hobbies and activities. This struggle of not having enough time for oneself changes drastically at another transition phase when adults leave the workforce and have more time on their own. Not knowing what to do with increase in time alone is frequently reported by those in the earlier years of retirement. For this group, struggles of solitude manifest in the lack of strategies to struggle empty time in solitude meaningfully, risking increase in boredom and loneliness. Changes during life transitions create unique contexts for an investigation of how attitudes and norms shape ability to cope with solitude across an adult's lifespan. This proposed research will recruit participants at these three transition phases: transition to university, transition to motherhood, and transition to retirement. Identifying barriers around our solitary experiences will shed light on the question of why some people do not like to be alone or are unable to gain regulatory benefits from it, and will inform targeted interventions. Three studies will be conducted using a mix of qualitative and quantitative approaches. Study 1 will use interviews with adults from three transition groups to understand how people often view solitude and whether their social environments or life circumstances allow them to engage meaningfully with solitude. Study 2 will track people's experiences with solitude in their daily life to identify activities that contribute to improved moods and well-being. Finally in , I will design and test an intervention to improve quality of time alone through tackling attitudes and norms and suggesting activities that allow adults at different stages of life enjoy their solitude better. The research findings will be of interest to mental health professionals, university counsellors, and organisations that work with parents and older adults, to foster positive uses of time alone for emotion regulation and psychological well-being.

一项针对世界各地成年人的跨文化调查表明，独处对日常休息有好处--这是现代社会继续忽视的心理健康的重要工具。我在读博士期间的研究。训练表明，只有15分钟的独处时间可以帮助我们摆脱激动的情绪，并提供安静思考的机会。然而，尽管孤独的好处被充分证明，但我们似乎无法摆脱孤独是消极和具有挑战性的想法。我们可以凭直觉把享受独处的乐趣归因于个人的偏好。这反映在我们经常听到的信息中，即内向的人更喜欢独处。现代社会也继续强化一个悲伤的孤独者的突出形象。这种对孤独的狭隘看法产生了两个问题。首先，它描绘了我们日常孤独经历的负面影响。其次，它阻止我们考虑环境和社会因素，这些因素可能会为追求孤独和拥抱这段时间的监管利益创造障碍。对成年人的观察表明，对孤独的渴望和从中受益的能力取决于生活环境。对于刚成年的人来说，在从父母照顾中独立出来的过渡过程中，比如大学一年级的学生，他们会在独处的时间上出现明显的挣扎。对于这个群体来说，新的社会环境产生了社交的压力和错过的恐惧，使独处的时间更加孤立和无法忍受。因此，新兴的成年人对孤独的渴望更少，尽管他们发现这对生产力和情绪调节有益。另一方面，随着年龄的增长，人们承担了更多的责任，他们独处的机会越来越少，独处变成了一种渴望的奢侈品。对于有年幼子女的职业母亲来说尤其如此，因为妇女在全职工作的同时仍然要承担更多的照顾责任。许多母亲报告说，她们找不到属于自己的时间或享受个人爱好和活动。当成年人离开工作岗位，有更多的时间独处时，这种没有足够时间独处的挣扎在另一个过渡阶段发生了巨大的变化。退休前几年的人经常报告说，不知道如何处理时间的增加。对这一群体来说，孤独的挣扎表现在缺乏策略来有意义地在孤独中挣扎空虚的时间，冒着增加无聊和孤独的风险。在生活的转变过程中的变化创造了独特的背景下，态度和规范如何塑造能力，以科普整个成年人的一生孤独的调查。这项拟议的研究将招募这三个过渡阶段的参与者：过渡到大学，过渡到母亲，过渡到退休。识别我们孤独体验周围的障碍将揭示为什么有些人不喜欢独处或无法从中获得监管利益的问题，并将为有针对性的干预提供信息。将采用定性和定量相结合的方法进行三项研究。研究1将使用来自三个过渡组的成年人的访谈来了解人们如何看待孤独，以及他们的社会环境或生活环境是否允许他们有意义地参与孤独。研究2将跟踪人们在日常生活中的孤独体验，以确定有助于改善情绪和幸福感的活动。最后，我将设计和测试一种干预措施，通过解决态度和规范，并建议让处于不同生命阶段的成年人更好地享受独处的活动，来提高独处时间的质量。研究结果将对心理健康专业人员，大学辅导员以及与父母和老年人合作的组织感兴趣，以促进积极利用独处时间进行情绪调节和心理健康。

项目成果

Investigating solitude as tool for downregulation of daily arousal using Ecological Momentary Assessments - STAGE 2 RR

使用生态瞬时评估研究独处作为下调日常唤醒的工具 - 第 2 阶段 RR

• DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/m8ax4
• 发表时间: 2023
• 作者: Nguyen T

Who feels good in solitude? A qualitative analysis of the personality and mindset factors relating to well-being when alone

谁在孤独中感觉良好？

• DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.2983
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: European Journal of Social Psychology
• 影响因子: 3.9
• 作者: Weinstein N

Solitude profiles and psychological adjustment in Chinese late adolescence: a person-centered research.

• DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1173441
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: FRONTIERS IN PSYCHIATRY
• 影响因子: 4.7
• 作者: Zhou, Tong;Liao, Longyue;Nguyen, Thuy-Vy T.;Li, Dan;Liu, Junsheng
• 通讯作者: Liu, Junsheng

Solitude in Context: A Systematic Review of How Societal Norms and Physical Environment Shape Perceptions of Solitary Experiences

背景下的孤独：对社会规范和物质环境如何影响孤独体验的系统回顾

• DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/xb8gd
• 发表时间: 2023
• 作者: Nguyen T