Loneliness Trajectories from Middle Childhood to Pre-Adolescence: Impact on Perceived Health and Sleep Disturbance

Abstract

The current study is the first to examine the association between chronic loneliness and perceived health, school absence due to illness, sleep duration and disturbance, in a sample of pre-adolescents (N = 209). Loneliness was measured in three collection waves that were 18 months apart and covered the ages 8 - 11 years. Using growth mixture modeling, two groups were identified with discrete growth patterns of loneliness: (a) relatively high, reducing loneliness (48%), and (b) low, stable loneliness (52%). At age 11 years, those in the relatively high reducing lonely group reported higher levels of depressive symptoms, poorer general health, took longer to get to sleep, and had greater sleep disturbance than children in the low, stable loneliness group. The findings suggest that there may be long-term health effects of experiencing loneliness in middle childhood, even when loneliness levels reduce to normal levels at pre-adolescence.