Network correlates of social and emotional loneliness in young and older adults

The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to examine social network correl ates of social and emotional loneliness to demonstrate that social and emot ional loneliness are different constructs and (b) to investigate the possib ility of age differences in the relationship between loneliness and social network characteristics. Results indicated that for both young and older ad ults, social and emotional loneliness were moderately correlated with one a nother and had differential network correlates. Likewise, for both age grou ps, emotional loneliness was related to the presence of a romantic partner in the network, although this relationship was stronger for the older adult s. Correlates of social loneliness also differed between young and older ad ults. The presence of a close other and size of the network predicted socia l loneliness for young adults, whereas average closeness of the network pre dicted social loneliness for older adults.