Are you alone? Measuring solitude in childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood

Abstract

The goal of this review was to provide an overview of how solitude has been operationally defined and measured since the year 2000 in psychological studies of children, adolescents, and emerging adults. After applying exclusionary criteria, our review of the extant literature identified n = 19 empirical studies, which we grouped into three broad methodological categories: (1) experiments/manipulations (n = 5); (2) retrospective reports (n = 7); and (3) experience sampling measures (experience sampling methodology; n = 7). A review of these studies indicated considerable variation in how solitude is operationalized and measured. There is also a notable lack of studies measuring solitude in childhood. Implications for ‘what matters’ when assessing solitude are discussed, and we provide a series of suggestions for helping this research area move forward.

Motivations for Social Withdrawal, Mental Health, and Well-Being in Emerging Adulthood: A Person-Oriented Approach

“…Also, in line with previous studies [37,38], unsociability was the most benign form of social withdrawal, with the lowest means of social anxiety compared to the shy and socially avoidant subgroups. This result was likely due to the nature of this socially withdrawn motivation, representing a preference for solitude free of those fearful tendencies and social concerns that generally result in more severe socio-emotional difficulties [12].…”

“…2023, 13, 977 2 of 16 In this study, we focused our attention on aspects of solitude related to social withdrawal, which is defined as the tendency to remove oneself from opportunities for social interactions with familiar and unfamiliar peers [11]. Socially withdrawn individuals tend to avoid social situations and spend more time alone than their more sociable counterparts [12]. However, social withdrawal is a heterogeneous and multidimensional construct, with distinct motivations for seeking solitude associated with different consequences, including increased risk for depression, social anxiety, and feelings of loneliness [13,14].…”