Abstract
The present study provides much needed empirical data on the adolescent loneliness experience. One hundred adolescents were given measures of loneliness, loneliness attributions, coping styles, and personal characteristics. Loneliness was positively related to state and trait anxiety, an external locus of control, depression, self-consciousness, and social anxiety and negatively related to self-reported attractiveness, likability, happiness, and life satisfaction. Lonely adolescents were also less willing to take social risks. Adolescents most often attributed loneliness to boredom and most often coped with loneliness by watching TV or listening to music. The implications of these findings for adolescent social development are discussed.
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Received Ph.D. from Michigan State University in 1979. Current interests are adolescent-parent separation and loneliness.
Received Ph.D. from Syracuse University, 1976. Current interests are relationships between psychological processes and physical health and loneliness.
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Moore, D., Schultz, N.R. Loneliness at adolescence: Correlates, attributions, and coping. J Youth Adolescence 12, 95–100 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02088307
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02088307