Doctoral Dissertation Research: When Social Isolation Leads to Loneliness

在这个项目中，研究了在孤独时加剧或抑制孤独感的情景因素，并确定了改变这一过程的个体差异(例如，内向)。尽管孤独会对健康产生重大影响，但其原因仍有许多未知之处。具体地说，人们对社会孤立何时会(以及不会)引起孤独感知之甚少。例如，在一天中，人们通常会进出社交孤立--也许一个人和他或她的伴侣一起吃早餐，然后独自开车去上班。从现有的研究中还不清楚，我们是否应该期望这个人在这段孤独的驾驶过程中比他或她在吃饭时感到更孤独。确定导致孤独的情景和个人风险因素可能会带来广泛的好处。该项目通过指出人们如何最大限度地从其社会行为中获益，以及通过加强行为干预来减少孤独感，有可能促进国家的健康和福利。在该项目中，将从人口统计学上不同的在线工作者群体中抽取约700名参与者的数据。每个参与者将使用基于网络的平台完成一份调查和多个时间日记。在时间日记中，参与者将以“活动”(如睡觉、开车上班、吃午餐)为导向，记录他们的日常经历，并记录有关这些时间段的其他信息(例如，他们和谁在一起，以及他们经历的情绪)。这一次的日记将捕捉到社交孤立的时刻，在这种孤立中的孤独感，以及预计会加剧或抑制孤独感的背景细节。这些背景细节的重要性将通过适当的统计分析来确定。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

In this project, the situational factors that intensify or inhibit feelings of loneliness while alone are investigated and individual differences (e.g., introversion) that modify this process are identified. Despite the significant effect loneliness can have on health, there is still much that is unknown about its causes. Specifically, little is known about when social isolation will (and will not) evoke feelings of loneliness. For example, throughout the day, people typically move in and out of social isolation--perhaps an individual eats breakfast with his or her partner and then drives to work, alone. It is unclear from existing research if we should expect this person to feel any lonelier during this solitary drive than he or she felt while eating. Identifying the situational and individual risk-factors for loneliness may have wide-ranging benefits. This project has the potential to advance national health and welfare by indicating how people can maximize the benefit of their social behavior, as well as by strengthening behavioral interventions to reduce feelings of loneliness.For this project, data will be collected from approximately 700 participants sampled from a demographically diverse group of online workers. Each participant will complete a survey and multiple time diaries using a web-based platform. In the time diaries, participants will report about their daily experiences in chunks of time oriented around "activities" (e.g., sleeping, driving to work, eating lunch) and they will record other information regarding these blocks of time (e.g., who they were with and the emotions they experienced). This time diary will capture moments of social isolation, feelings of loneliness during such isolation, and the contextual details expected to intensify or inhibit feelings of loneliness. The importance of these contextual details will be identified via appropriate statistical analyses.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.