CHILDREN'S CONCEPTIONS OF LONELINESS--AGE DIFFERENCE

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Feelings of loneliness, isolation and alienation are often described as parts of the affective state accompanying school dropout, adolescent suicide, and other failures of healthy development. Persistent loneliness can become a serious stressor, and an accompanying lack of a social support network can interfere with successful coping. Although there are substantial data to support the notion that even very young children experience loneliness, it is not clear what the meaning of loneliness is to young children, or in fact, to children of any age. The first studies of loneliness in children have, understandably, focused on documenting the existence and prevalence of loneliness, and on examining the correlates of loneliness with behavior and with peer acceptance. Only two studies, both currently underway, have examined the meaning of loneliness to children: one with kindergarten and first-grade children, and one with middle-school children. The goal of this study is to chronicle age-related differences in children's conceptions of loneliness and to examine how individual differences in children's social functioning relate to their conceptions of loneliness. This study will focus on three areas of children's understanding: definitions of loneliness and its accompanying affects, conceptions of the causes of loneliness, and conceptions of potential strategies for coping with and ending lonely states. Subjects will consist of 125 children each from first, fourth, sixth, and tenth grades. Measures will include Asher et al.'s loneliness questionnaire, two measures of sociometric status, peer and teacher ratings of behavior, IQ/school achievement measures, and an individual interview tapping children's conceptions of loneliness. The proposed investigation will contribute to understanding of the processes involved in children's social relationships by examining children's conceptions of loneliness and the links between these conceptions and children's social functioning.