IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i22p11963-d678950.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Loneliness and Mental Health: The Mediating Effect of Perceived Social Support

Author

Listed:
  • Elody Hutten

    (Department of Clinical Psychology, Open Universiteit, 6401 DL Heerlen, The Netherlands)

  • Ellen M. M. Jongen

    (Department of Clinical Psychology, Open Universiteit, 6401 DL Heerlen, The Netherlands)

  • Anique E. C. C. Vos

    (Department of Clinical and Medical Psychology, Zuyderland Medical Center, 6419 PC Heerlen, The Netherlands)

  • Anja J. H. C. van den Hout

    (Department of Clinical and Medical Psychology, Zuyderland Medical Center, 6419 PC Heerlen, The Netherlands)

  • Jacques J. D. M. van Lankveld

    (Department of Clinical Psychology, Open Universiteit, 6401 DL Heerlen, The Netherlands)

Abstract

Social connectedness is a fundamental human need. The Evolutionary Theory of Loneliness (ETL) predicts that a lack of social connectedness has long-term mental and physical health consequences. Social support is a potential mechanism through which loneliness influences health. The present cross-sectional study examined the relationship between loneliness and mental health, and the mediating effects of social support in a Dutch adult sample (N = 187, age 20 to 70). The health variables included in the study are anxiety, depression, somatic symptoms as measured by the SCL-90, and the DSM-5 diagnosis somatic symptom disorder. The results indicated that social support partially mediated the relationship between loneliness and anxiety, depression, and somatic symptoms. These results indicate that social support partially explains the relationship between loneliness and physical and mental health issues. The relationship between loneliness and being diagnosed with somatic symptom disorder was not mediated by social support. This suggests that the mechanisms through which loneliness relates to either somatic symptoms or somatic symptom disorder are different.

Suggested Citation

  • Elody Hutten & Ellen M. M. Jongen & Anique E. C. C. Vos & Anja J. H. C. van den Hout & Jacques J. D. M. van Lankveld, 2021. "Loneliness and Mental Health: The Mediating Effect of Perceived Social Support," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-13, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:22:p:11963-:d:678950
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/22/11963/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/22/11963/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David M. Cutler & Adriana Lleras-Muney, 2006. "Education and Health: Evaluating Theories and Evidence," NBER Working Papers 12352, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Marlies Maes & Pamela Qualter & Gerine M. A. Lodder & Marcus Mund, 2022. "How (Not) to Measure Loneliness: A Review of the Eight Most Commonly Used Scales," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-37, August.
    2. Lavinia Maria Pop & Magdalena Iorga & Raluca Iurcov, 2022. "Body-Esteem, Self-Esteem and Loneliness among Social Media Young Users," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-14, April.
    3. Hilmi Mizani & Ani Cahyadi & Hendryadi Hendryadi & Salamah Salamah & Santi Retno Sari, 2022. "Loneliness, student engagement, and academic achievement during emergency remote teaching during COVID-19: the role of the God locus of control," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-9, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Martin Fischer & Martin Karlsson & Therese Nilsson, 2013. "Effects of Compulsory Schooling on Mortality: Evidence from Sweden," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-23, August.
    2. Tansel, Aysit & Keskin, Halil Ibrahim, 2017. "Education Effects on Days Hospitalized and Days out of Work by Gender: Evidence from Turkey," IZA Discussion Papers 11210, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Elnaz Hajebi & Mohammad Javad Razmi, 2014. "Effect Of Income Inequality On Health Status In A Selection Of Middle And Low Income Countries," Equilibrium. Quarterly Journal of Economics and Economic Policy, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 9(4), pages 133-152, December.
    4. repec:rre:publsh:v:39:y:2009:i:2:p:149-69 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Albarrán, Pedro & Hidalgo-Hidalgo, Marisa & Iturbe-Ormaetxe, Iñigo, 2020. "Education and adult health: Is there a causal effect?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 249(C).
    6. Clémentine Garrouste & Mathilde Godard, 2016. "The lasting health impact of leaving school in a bad economy : Britons in the 1970s recession," Post-Print hal-01408637, HAL.
    7. Trine Filges & Anu Siren & Torben Fridberg & Bjørn C. V. Nielsen, 2020. "Voluntary work for the physical and mental health of older volunteers: A systematic review," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(4), December.
    8. Meghir, Costas & Palme, Mårten & Simeonova, Emilia, 2012. "Education, Health and Mortality: Evidence from a Social Experiment," Research Papers in Economics 2012:4, Stockholm University, Department of Economics.
    9. Pedro Albarran Pérez & Marisa Hidalgo Hidalgo & Iñigo Iturbe-Ormaetxe Kortajarene, 2017. "Schooling and adult health: Can education overcome bad early-life conditions?," Working Papers. Serie AD 2017-09, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    10. Ana Poças & Elias Soukiazis, 2010. "Health Status Determinants in the OECD Countries. A Panel Data Approach with Endogenous Regressors," GEMF Working Papers 2010-04, GEMF, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra.
    11. Ahsan, Md Nazmul & Maharaj, Riddhi, 2018. "Parental human capital and child health at birth in India," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 130-149.
    12. Hoon S. Choi & Darrell Carpenter & Myung S. Ko, 2022. "Risk Taking Behaviors Using Public Wi-Fi™," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 965-982, June.
    13. Thérèse McDonnell, 2016. "Non-cognitive development in infancy: the influence of maternal employment and the mediating role of childcare," Working Papers 201606, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    14. Meyer, S.C. & Künn-Nelen, A.C., 2014. "Do occupational demands explain the educational gradient in health?," Research Memorandum 016, Maastricht University, Graduate School of Business and Economics (GSBE).
    15. Raquel Fonseca Benito & Yuhui Zheng, 2011. "The Effect of Education on Health Cross-Country Evidence," Working Papers WR-864, RAND Corporation.
    16. Strulik, Holger, 2018. "The return to education in terms of wealth and health," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 12(C), pages 1-14.
    17. Steffen Reinhold & Hendrik Jürges, 2010. "Secondary school fees and the causal effect of schooling on health behavior," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(8), pages 994-1001, August.
    18. Ji, Sisi & Zhu, Zheyi, 2022. "Does higher education matter for health?," Cardiff Economics Working Papers E2022/4, Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Economics Section.
    19. Pierre Courtioux & Stéphane Gregoir & Dede Houeto, 2009. "The Simulation of the Educational Output over the Life Course: The GAMEO Model," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-00391393, HAL.
    20. Janet Currie & Mark Stabile & Phongsack Manivong & Leslie L. Roos, 2010. "Child Health and Young Adult Outcomes," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 45(3).
    21. Dang, Rui, 2015. "Spillover effects of local human capital stock on adult obesity: Evidence from German neighborhoods," Ruhr Economic Papers 585, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:22:p:11963-:d:678950. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.