A Moment Versus a Lifetime: Patterns of Loneliness and Perceived Causes in People's Lived Experiences

For effective loneliness interventions, we need a better understanding of why some loneliness experiences persist (often labeled chronic loneliness), while most loneliness experiences remain transient. To provide starting points for future research on causes of chronic loneliness, interview data from adults ages 19-45 years from India, Egypt, Turkey, Israel, Bulgaria, and Austria were reanalyzed. Because of little scientific consensus on the exact definition of chronic versus transient loneliness, different temporal patterns of loneliness were first distinguished in the data. Instead of two, four types emerged: Transient loneliness typically lasted some hours to 2 years; recurrent loneliness recurred every couple of weeks or months; prolonged loneliness lasted for multiple years; and chronic loneliness usually had its onset in childhood or adolescence and persisted for most people's lives. Perceived causes for loneliness were compared across those four temporal patterns, with findings showing that transient or prolonged loneliness was typically attributed to concrete external situations, but chronic loneliness was explained more by unfulfilling family relationships in childhood, perceptions that one does not fit in with societal norms, or high relationship expectations. Both recurrent and chronic loneliness were often attributed to sensitivity, rumination, overgeneralizations in relationships, or discomfort with oneself (e.g., low self-acceptance).