ERIC Number: EJ1471001
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-May
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0165-0254
EISSN: EISSN-1464-0651
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Belongingness to Groups, Adolescent Loneliness Trajectories, and Their Consequences
Marguerite Beattie1; Noona Kiuru2; Katariina Salmela-Aro1
International Journal of Behavioral Development, v49 n3 p240-251 2025
While loneliness for short periods of time is normal, prolonged loneliness has severe health risks. This study aims to discover what loneliness trajectories can be found in a cohort of adolescents, how belongingness to different groups may be associated with these trajectories, and the mental, physical, and academic consequences of these trajectories. Adolescents (N = 2,765) born in the year 2000 and attending Helsinki schools participated in annual surveys from 2013 to 2019. We conducted latent profile analyses and equality of means tests to find the number of trajectories and their associations with potential preventive and consequential factors. Our analyses resulted in six profiles: "Stable high" (4.8%), "Low becomes volatile (8.1%), "Moderates with a 7th-grade peak" (9.3%), "Winding down" (11.9%), "Winding up" (15.5%), and "Stable low" (50.5%). In general, trajectories that started with high loneliness reported lower belongingness to groups (i.e., friends, school, hobby, home, and society) than trajectories that started with low loneliness. Adolescents following the "Stable high" loneliness trajectory reported the worst mental well-being and school burnout outcomes, but there were no associations with drug use. Belongingness to friends, school, hobbies, home, and national and international society may be more protective against loneliness than belongingness to religious communities in some areas. It would behoove adolescent health experts to investigate how groups can prevent prolonged loneliness and its consequences.
Descriptors: Adolescents, Psychological Patterns, Sense of Belonging, Interpersonal Relationship, Well Being, Mental Health, Leisure Time, Educational Environment, Family Environment, Religion, Community Organizations, Predictor Variables, Foreign Countries, Secondary School Students, Burnout, Substance Abuse
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Finland (Helsinki)
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Satisfaction With Life Scale
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1University of Helsinki, Finland; 2University of Jyväskylä, Finland