Loneliness and emotion regulation: A meta-analytic review

Chronic loneliness has been associated with increased risk for multiple mental disorders. Multiple lines of evidence suggest that problems with emotion regulation (ER) may underlie the course and costs of loneliness, but evidence on the associations between loneliness and ER has not been systematically analyzed until now. The present meta-analysis examined the relations between loneliness and multiple dimensions of ER including the habitual use of common strategies (i.e., rumination, cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, distraction), ER difficulties, and ER abilities. A systematic search across four databases returned 4,454 articles, out of which 61 articles (total N = 40,641) were eligible for inclusion. The analyses indicated that there were consistent positive relations between loneliness and rumination (r = 0.38), suppression (r = 0.31), and ER difficulties (r = 0.49). Loneliness was also negatively associated with reappraisal (r = -0.23), distraction (r = -0.21), and ER abilities (r = -0.28). The latter two effects were significantly larger in studies on adults compared to adolescents, as indicated by subgroup analyses, and corroborated by metaregressions. Furthermore, the percentage of women in the sample was a negative predictor of the association between loneliness and ER difficulties, and the country cultural individualism was a positive predictor of the association between loneliness and suppression. There was evidence of publication bias in all analyses, but the effect sizes remained significant after imputing for missing studies. Overall, the present results support consistent associations between loneliness and ER and highlight potential targets for future interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).