UNITE: Understanding individual and social pathways to loneliness in young people from socio-economically marginalised backgrounds

孤独是一种不受欢迎的社会孤立感。虽然研究和政策主要关注老年人的孤独，但孤独在年轻人中比其他年龄组更常见，在2019冠状病毒病大流行期间变得更加普遍。英国政府估计，11%的年轻人经常或总是感到孤独，26%的人至少有时会感到孤独。研究表明，青少年的孤独感会扰乱教育和就业。据估计，英国雇主每年因孤独感而损失25亿英镑。它还与抑郁、焦虑、免疫力受损和过早死亡有关。一些社会成员比其他人更严重地感到孤独。对成年人的研究表明，社会经济边缘化（以贫困和缺乏教育和职业机会为特征）使孤独感的发生率增加了一倍。综上所述，这些发现表明，来自社会经济边缘化背景的年轻人可能特别容易感到孤独及其不良后果。然而，他们的经历，以及他们如何以及为什么遭受孤独却知之甚少。为了解决我们知识上的这一差距，我们将采用多研究、多方法的方法：在研究1中，我们将跟踪来自社会经济边缘化背景的年轻人孤独感的发展。我们将研究候选社会途径对孤独的作用：同伴和家庭关系以及邻里特征，以及它们如何影响大规模人口范围内多样化和代表性数据集的孤独轨迹。这将为干预研究提供可操作目标的见解。在研究2中，我们将探索经历过社会经济边缘化的年轻人孤独感的潜在认知途径。我们将使用访谈来深入探讨边缘化的生活经历与维持孤独感的候选认知因素之间的关系，例如对社会威胁（例如，排斥）的感知差异。这将有助于我们为未来的干预研究确定可修改的目标。在研究3中，我们将观察来自社会经济边缘化背景的年轻人孤独感的社会和认知途径。在这项研究中，我们将与未来领袖计划（FLP）合作。我们将监测研究1和研究2中确定的孤独感及其社会和认知预测因素，研究对象是一组参加社区行动领导计划的年轻人。这将使我们能够在现实世界中观察到孤独感的社会和认知途径。它将为基于现有社区行动基础设施和专业知识的未来可扩展干预研究的发展提供一个案例研究。为了实现研究计划，并有效地改变我们对青年孤独的理解，该项目将汇集学者、与年轻人合作的慈善机构以及来自社会经济边缘化背景的年轻人的专业知识。青年影响中心将领导指导小组，就科学和影响工作提供咨询意见。McPin将帮助招募年轻人加入该团队，他们将作为受薪的共同研究人员参与该项目。学生资助计划将共同领导研究3，并协助招募及推行研究。结束孤独运动将促进向决策者、慈善机构和年轻人传播调查结果。总而言之，这项工作将对来自社会经济边缘化背景的年轻人的孤独感产生新的、系统的理解。这将提供必要的证据基础，为政策和资金优先次序提供信息。这将形成我们长期愿景的基础，即为年轻人开发有效的大规模孤独干预。

Loneliness is the unwelcome feeling of social isolation. While research and policy have focussed mainly on loneliness in the elderly, loneliness is more common in youth than in other age groups and has become more common still during the COVID-19 pandemic. The UK government estimates that 11% of young people feel lonely often or always, and 26% feel lonely at least sometimes. Research has shown that youth loneliness disrupts education and employment. Loneliness is estimated to cost UK employers £2.5 billion per year. It also links to depression, anxiety, impaired immunity, and premature death. Some members of society experience loneliness more severely than others. Research in adults shows that socio-economic marginalisation (characterized by poverty and lack of educational and occupational opportunities) doubles the occurrence of loneliness. Taken together, these findings suggest that young people from socio-economically marginalised backgrounds may be particularly at risk of loneliness and its adverse outcomes. Yet, their experiences, and how and why they suffer from loneliness is poorly understood. To tackle this gap in our knowledge, we will use a multi-study, multi-methods approach: In Study 1, we will track the development of loneliness in young people from socio-economically marginalised backgrounds. We will investigate the role of candidate social pathways to loneliness: peer and family relationships and neighbourhood characteristics, and how these affect loneliness trajectories in large-scale population-wide datasets that are diverse and representative. This will provide insights into actionable targets for intervention studies. In Study 2, we will explore potential cognitive pathways to loneliness in young people who have experienced socio-economic marginalisation. We will use interviews to probe in-depth information on relationships between lived experiences of marginalisation and candidate cognitive factors that maintain loneliness, such as differences in perceptions of social threat (e.g., exclusion). This will help us identify modifiable targets for future intervention studies. In Study 3, we will observe the social and cognitive pathways to loneliness in young people from socio-economically marginalised backgrounds. For this study, will collaborate with the Future Leaders Programme (FLP). We will monitor loneliness and its social and cognitive predictors, as identified in Studies 1&2, in a cohort of young people, enrolled in a community action leadership programme. This will allow us to observe the social and cognitive pathways to loneliness in a real-world setting. It will provide a case study for the development of future scalable intervention studies that build on existing community action infrastructure and expertise. To realize the research programme and produce an effective step-change in our understanding of youth loneliness, the project will bring together the expertise of academics, charities working with young people, and young people from socio-economically marginalised backgrounds. The Centre for Youth Impact will head the Steering Group to advise on the scientific and impact work. McPin will help recruit young people to the team who will work as salaried co-researchers on the project. The FLP will co-lead Study 3 and facilitate recruitment and implementation of the study. The Campaign to End Loneliness will facilitate the dissemination of findings to policymakers, charities, and young people. Altogether, this work will yield a new, systematic understanding of loneliness in young people from socio-economically marginalised backgrounds. This will deliver the evidence-base needed to inform policy and funding prioritization. It will form the basis for our long-term vision of developing an effective large-scale loneliness intervention for young people.