Loneliness and close relationships with parents and friends: National representative study of adolescents in Denmark

Abstract

Background: Loneliness in adolescence is a serious threat to quality of life, and it is important to identify possible predictors. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between loneliness and close relationships with parents and friends in a community sample of adolescents, and whether this association varied by sex, age group, and socioeconomic status. Methods: The study used data from the Danish arm of the international Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study in 2010, 2014 and 2018 that included nationally representative samples of students in the age groups, 11-, 13- and 15-year-olds (n=10,425). Loneliness was measured by one item and close relationships with parents was measured by the HBSC Ease of Communication Measure. Multilevel logistic regression was applied to study the associations between ease of communication and loneliness. Stratified analysis and interaction analysis tested the modifying effect of sex on the associations. Results: A large majority (80.1%) of students had close relationships with both parents and friends, 16.3% had close relationships with only one of these parties, and 3.6% with neither any parent nor any friend. The prevalence of loneliness was 6.0%. There was a strong and graded association between loneliness and lack of close relationships. The odds ratios for loneliness were around 8.0 in the groups with the weakest relationships. Stratified analysis showed that girls were more vulnerable to lack of close relationships. Conclusion: The remarkably strong association between lack of close relationships and loneliness – especially for girls – calls for further studies that explore which aspects of loneliness and which aspects of social relationships drive this association. From an intervention point of view, the study suggests that interventions to fight loneliness should include efforts to strengthen social relations among peers at school.