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Encyclopedia of Geropsychology pp 1–8Cite as

Loneliness and Social Embeddedness in Old Age

Synonyms

Social connectedness; Social isolation

Definition

Loneliness is an unpleasant and distressing experience that accompanies a perceived deficiency in social relationship quantity or quality. Loneliness is not synonymous with objective social isolation. People can be alone without feeling lonely, and, conversely, people can feel lonely even when with many others. The subjective nature of loneliness has given rise to an alternate term for loneliness, namely, “perceived social isolation.” There is no obvious term for the opposite of loneliness, but “social embeddedness,” “belongingness,” and “connectedness” are common surrogates.

Prevalence

Loneliness is a prevalent experience across the lifespan. Available studies conducted in developed countries indicate that as many as 40 % of adults over 65 years of age report being lonely at least sometimes. Approximately 5–15 % of adults of this age report feeling lonely frequently, but that figure increases to about 50 % of adults 80 years...

Keywords

  • Social Embeddedness
  • Loneliness Scale
  • Social Loneliness
  • UCLA Loneliness Scale
  • Emotional Loneliness

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Academic Research Centers, NORC at the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA

    Louise C. Hawkley

Authors
  1. Louise C. Hawkley
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Louise C. Hawkley .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Nancy A. Pachana

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© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore

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Hawkley, L.C. (2015). Loneliness and Social Embeddedness in Old Age. In: Pachana, N. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geropsychology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-080-3_70-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-080-3_70-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-981-287-080-3

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