Declining Loneliness Over Time: Evidence From American Colleges and High Schools

We examined changes in loneliness over time. study 1 was a cross-temporal meta-analysis of 48 samples of american college students who completed the revised ucla loneliness scale (total n = 13,041). in study 1,loneliness declined from 1978 to 2009 (d = −0.26). study 2 used a representative sample of high school students from the monitoring the future project (total n = 385,153). in study 2,loneliness declined from 1991 to 2012. declines were similar among white students (d = −0.14),black students (d = −0.17),male students (d = −0.11),and female students (d = −0.11). different loneliness factors showed diverging trends. subjective isolation declined (d = −0.20),whereas social network isolation increased (d = 0.06). we discuss the declines in loneliness within the context of other cultural changes,including changes to group membership and personality. © 2014 by the society for personality and social psychology,inc.