SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LONELINESS - A REEXAMINATION OF WEISS TYPOLOGY OF LONELINESS

The present study examined Weiss' (1973) typology of social and emotio nal loneliness. The main purpose of this study was to assess Weiss' pr oposed links among relational needs, social and emotional loneliness, and mental health. A total of 241 university students responded to a m easure of social and emotional loneliness, the social provisions scale and several indices of mental health. Evidence from this study sugges ts that social and emotional loneliness are distinct experiences. More over, emotional loneliness can be broken down into two aspects: romant ic emotional loneliness and family emotional loneliness. The latter fi ndings lend support to a multidimensional construct of loneliness. Res ults also indicated that, although both social and emotional lonelines s were negatively correlated with the social provisions, each had a un ique association with specific social provisions. These relationships were consistent with Weiss' predictions. On the other hand, his predic tions regarding the consequences of relational deficits and loneliness received less support. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.