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

这项研究将探索一生中孤独的原因，并评估是否可以通过代际接触来减少孤独。考虑到孤独现在已经被确定为英国一个重要的公共健康问题，这是一个及时的话题。孤独症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非常经常感到孤独。相当数量的儿童和青少年也报告了孤独。2018年10月，英国启动了首个跨政府孤独战略，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 GB就能节省2-3 GB。尽管人们对孤独的兴趣有所增加，但对孤独的主观原因和缺乏有效干预的研究仍然有限。孤独是一种当一个人感觉到他们的社会关系不足或没有成就感时产生的一种苦恼感觉。这与社会孤立不同，在社会孤立中，社会联系客观上是有限的或不存在的。尽管社会孤立程度不同，但儿童、年轻人和老年人都会经历孤独，这表明不同的因素可能会在不同的人生阶段导致孤独。然而，缺乏研究让人们有机地描述他们孤独的原因，或不同原因的影响。这项研究将通过使用集体智力方法来解决目前的知识差距，这种方法允许儿童、年轻人和老年人群体识别和构建他们孤独的原因。这种名为互动管理的方法将映射这些群体产生孤独的原因之间的关系，从而为每个发展阶段的原因创建一个结构。这将极有价值地增加目前人们对一生中孤独的理解，并有助于建立有效的干预措施。代际接触可能是减少年轻人和老年人孤独的有效方法。代际方案在正式环境中将年轻人和老年人联系起来，分享互惠互利的经验。他们可以减轻抑郁，增加社会联系，提高生活满意度，并对未来抱有希望。大多数代际干预措施将儿童作为较年轻的群体，但研究表明，那些有大学年龄的人是最有效的。鉴于25岁以下和65岁以上的成年人在英国的孤独感水平最高，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，跟踪两个年龄段的目标结果，同时考虑导致孤独的因素。同样重要的是，应将服务使用者的需求和意见纳入干预措施的制定过程，以确保其适当和有效。因此，这项研究的目的是包括与年轻人和老年人共同设计课程，以开发一种代际干预措施来减少孤独。然后，这项干预的双臂试验将检验代际接触是否能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心理社会结果，访谈将探索参与者对干预的看法。这些发现可以为学术界和政府在英国和国外提供心理、健康和经济利益的政策和实践提供参考。总体而言，这项研究将增加我们对孤独是如何产生的知识，并阐明社区、研究人员和政府如何创建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.