Loneliness Across the Lifespan: Understanding the Causes and Reducing the Impact Through Intergenerational Contact

本研究将探讨一生中孤独的原因，并评估是否可以通过代际接触来减少孤独。这是一个及时的话题，因为孤独现在已被确定为英国的一个重大公共卫生问题。它与社交焦虑和抑郁等心理健康问题以及与吸烟和饮酒等风险因素相当的死亡风险增加有关。孤独在英国很普遍，40%的年轻人和27%的75岁以上的人报告说他们经常或经常感到孤独。大量儿童和青少年也表示感到孤独。2018年10月，英国启动了首个跨政府的孤独战略，帮助所有年龄段的人建立联系。这是一个社会和经济上合理的决定，因为在有效的孤独干预上每花费1英镑，就会节省2-3英镑。尽管人们的兴趣越来越大，但对孤独的主观原因的研究仍然有限，而且缺乏有效的干预措施。孤独是一种痛苦的感觉，当一个人认为他们的社会关系不足或无法实现时就会出现这种感觉。这与社会孤立不同，在社会孤立中，社会联系客观上受到限制或不存在。尽管儿童、年轻人和老年人的社会孤立程度不同，但他们都经历过孤独，这表明在不同的生命阶段，不同的因素可能会导致孤独。然而，缺乏研究允许人们有机地描述他们孤独的原因，或者不同原因的影响。这项研究将通过使用集体智慧方法来解决目前的知识差距，该方法允许儿童、年轻人和老年人群体识别和构建他们孤独的原因。这种方法，交互式管理，将绘制这些群体产生的孤独原因之间的关系，为每个发展阶段的原因创建一个结构。这将有价值地增加目前对整个生命周期的孤独的理解，并有助于制定有效的干预措施。代际接触可能是减少年轻人和老年人孤独感的有效手段。代际项目将年轻人和老年人在正式环境中联系起来，分享互利的经验。他们可以减少抑郁，增加社会联系，生活满意度和对未来的希望。大多数代际干预都包括儿童作为较年轻的群体，但研究表明，那些与大学年龄的人在一起的干预最有效。考虑到英国25岁以下和65岁以上的成年人的孤独感最高，将这些群体聚集在一起的干预措施可能特别有益。有必要进行研究，在考虑导致孤独的因素的同时，追踪这两个年龄组的目标结果。同样重要的是，在制定干预措施时考虑到服务使用者的需要和意见，以确保这些措施是适当和有效的。因此，本研究旨在包括与年轻人和老年人的共同设计会议，以开发代际干预来减少孤独感。干预的两组试验将检查代际接触是否会减少年轻人和老年人的孤独感。问卷将评估干预是否影响孤独感和相关的社会心理结果，访谈将探讨参与者对干预的看法。这些发现可以为学术和政府的政策和实践提供信息，为英国和国外提供心理、健康和经济效益。总的来说，这项研究将增加我们对孤独如何产生的认识，并阐明社区、研究人员和政府如何创造可接受和有效的孤独干预措施。

This research will explore the causes of loneliness across the lifespan and assess whether loneliness can be reduced through intergenerational contact. This is a timely topic given that loneliness has now been identified as a significant public health issue in the UK. It is associated with mental health issues such as social anxiety and depression and a heightened risk of death that is comparable to risk factors like smoking and alcohol consumption.Loneliness is widespread in the UK, with 40% of young adults and 27% of over-75s reporting that they often or very often feel lonely. Significant numbers of children and adolescents also report loneliness. In October 2018, the UK launched the first cross-Government loneliness strategy to help people in all age groups build connections. This is a socially and economically sound decision, as every £1 spent on effective loneliness interventions delivers £2-3 in savings. Despite this increased interest, there is still limited research into the subjective causes of loneliness and a lack of effective interventions.Loneliness is a feeling of distress that arises when a person perceives their social connections to be inadequate or unfulfilling. This is different from social isolation, where social connections are objectively limited or absent. Children, younger adults, and older adults all experience loneliness despite differing levels of social isolation, indicating that different factors might contribute to loneliness at different life stages. However, there is a lack of research allowing people to organically describe the causes of their loneliness, or the impact of different causes. This research will address the current gap in knowledge by using a collective intelligence methodology which allows groups of children, younger adults, and older adults to identify and structure the causes of their loneliness. This method, Interactive Management, will map relations between causes of loneliness generated by these groups to create a structure for causes at each developmental stage. This will add valuably to current understandings of loneliness across the lifespan and help inform the creation of effective interventions.Intergenerational contact may be an effective means of reducing loneliness in younger and older adults. Intergenerational programmes connect younger and older people in formal settings to share mutually beneficial experiences. They can reduce depression and increase social connectedness, life satisfaction, and hope for the future. Most intergenerational interventions include children as the younger group, but research suggests that those with university-aged individuals are most effective. Given that adults under 25 and over 65 have the highest levels of loneliness in the UK, interventions that bring together these groups may be particularly beneficial. There is a need for research which tracks targeted outcomes in both age groups while considering the factors which bring about loneliness. It is also important to incorporate the needs and opinions of service users into the development of interventions to ensure that they are appropriate and effective. As such, this research aims to include co-design sessions with younger and older adults in order to develop an intergenerational intervention to reduce loneliness. A two-arm trial of the intervention will then examine whether intergenerational contact reduces loneliness in younger and older adults. Questionnaires will assess whether the intervention impacts loneliness and related psychosocial outcomes and interviews will explore participants' views of the intervention. These findings can inform academic and government policy and practice to provide psychological, health, and economic benefits in the UK and abroad. Overall, this research will add to our knowledge of how loneliness arises and shed light on how communities, researchers, and governments can create acceptable and effective loneliness interventions.