Publication type
Journal Article
Authors
Publication date
November 16, 2024
Summary:
This pre-registered secondary analysis aimed to examine distinct longitudinal loneliness trajectories in youth and whether these trajectories were associated with psychological distress at final follow-up in the UK Household Longitudinal Study. Participants (N = 827, 55.1% female, Time 1: M ± SD = 16.50 ± 0.50 years) provided data during Waves 9, 10 and 11. K-means longitudinal clustering analysis was used to identify clusters of participants with distinct loneliness trajectories across measurement waves. We identified four clusters demonstrating distinct trajectories of loneliness: stable low (40.7%), stable high (20.6%), moderate decreasing (19.6%) and low increasing (19.1%). Compared to ‘stable low loneliness’, ‘stable high’ and ‘low increasing’ loneliness clusters were significantly associated with psychological distress at Wave 11 following adjustment for sex, ethnicity, parent's highest educational achievement and Wave 9 psychological distress. The current study offers an important contribution to the literature on patterns of youth loneliness and mental health consequences.
Published in
British Journal of Developmental Psychology
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/bjdp.12533
ISSN
261510
Subjects
Notes
Open Access
Online Early
© 2024 The Author(s).
British Journal of Developmental Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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