IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/eujoag/v19y2022i3d10.1007_s10433-021-00649-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Lonely societies: low trust societies? Further explanations for national variations in loneliness among older Europeans

Author

Listed:
  • Gražina Rapolienė

    (Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences)

  • Marja Aartsen

    (Oslo Metropolitan University)

Abstract

Cross-national studies in Europe reveal sharp regional differences in the prevalence of loneliness among older adults, with the highest prevalence of loneliness in Eastern European countries. In this study, we investigate an alternative explanation for differences in loneliness prevalence based on differences in trust. Many of the Eastern European countries were ruled by totalitarian regimes that undermined people’s trust in other people and in the system, potentially leading to higher loneliness prevalence. Data are derived from the sixth round of the European Social Survey conducted in 2012, based on 12,042 respondents, of which 4827 live in post-totalitarian countries and 7215 in other European countries and Israel. We estimate a path model with trust in people, trust in the system, and social engagement included as latent variables and one dichotomous outcome (lonely or not). We control for age, gender, health limitations, marital status, income adequacy, and education. The results reveal that loneliness is partly constructed by the social–cultural and historical–political characteristics of the countries in which people live. The higher prevalence of loneliness in the Eastern-European post-totalitarian countries can be linked to a low level of trust in other people through social disengagement. Considering the role of trust in the creation of individuals feelings of loneliness contributes to the understanding of country variations in loneliness and opens a new perspective in loneliness research and the development of policies aimed at reducing loneliness.

Suggested Citation

  • Gražina Rapolienė & Marja Aartsen, 2022. "Lonely societies: low trust societies? Further explanations for national variations in loneliness among older Europeans," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 485-494, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:eujoag:v:19:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s10433-021-00649-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s10433-021-00649-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10433-021-00649-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10433-021-00649-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Marquez, Jose & Qualter, Pamela & Petersen, Kimberly & Humphrey, Neil & Black, Louise, 2022. "In a lonely place: Neighbourhood effects on loneliness among adolescents," SocArXiv hzer5, Center for Open Science.
    2. Thijs van den Broek & Jack Lam & Cecilia Potente, 2024. "Do middle-aged and older people underreport loneliness? experimental evidence from the Netherlands," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 1-10, December.
    3. Barjaková, Martina & Garnero, Andrea & d’Hombres, Béatrice, 2023. "Risk factors for loneliness: A literature review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 334(C).
    4. Susan L. Prescott, 2023. "Lost Connections: Why the Growing Crisis of Loneliness Matters for Planetary Health," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-7, July.

    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:spr:eujoag:v:19:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s10433-021-00649-z. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.