An Investigation of Social and Emotional Loneliness in Young Adults in terms of Difficulties in Emotion Regulation

Year 2021, Volume: 5 Issue: 1, 102 - 117, 30.06.2021

Vildan Saruhan , Müge Yukay Yüksel

Abstract

In this research, it was attempted to explain the predictive effect of difficulties in emotion regulation on social and emotional loneliness. It was especially aimed to investigate the effect on loneliness of difficulties in using the appropriate emotion regulation strategies in understanding, accepting and controlling the emotions and behaving accordingly. In this study where the correlational survey model was used, data was collected from 552 young adults studying in different faculties and departments of a private university located in the city of Istanbul. 354 participants (64.1%) were female and 198 participants (35.9%) were male young adults aged between 19-25. Measurement tools were Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. Analysis results demonstrated that social and emotional loneliness exhibited a significant difference between genders while the difficulties in emotion regulation did not exhibit a significant difference between genders. Significant correlations were found between social and emotional loneliness and difficulties in emotion regulation and its subscales. The results of stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that difficulties in using the appropriate emotion regulation strategies, understanding the emotional reactions and awareness of emotional reactions were a predictor of social and emotional loneliness. Findings were discussed in accordance with the literature. Suggestions for researchers and field practitioners were listed.

Keywords

Emotional loneliness, Difficulties in emotion regulation, Social loneliness

References

• Akhun, M. (2012). The relationship of perceived parenting styles, early maladaptive schemas, self construal, separation-individuation, and difficulties of emotional regulation to psychological distress in Turkish university students (Unpublished doctorate dissertation). Hacettepe University, Institute of Social Sciences.
• Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117(3), 497.
• Borys, S., & Perlman, D. (1985). Gender differences in loneliness. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 11(1), 63-74. doi:10.1177/0146167285111006
• Budak, C. F. (2017). Sociotropy-autonomy personality characteristics and emotion regulation difficulties as the predictors of internet addiction (Unpublished master thesis). Işık University, Institute of Social Sciences.
• Cacioppo, J. T., & Hawkley, L. C. (2009). Perceived social isolation and cognition. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13(10), 447-454.
• Cole, P. M., Michel, M. K., & Teti, L. O. (1994). The development of emotion regulation and dysregulation: A clinical perspective. The development of emotion regulation: Biological and behavioral considerations. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 59, 73 –100. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-5834.1994.tb01278.x
• Çalışkan, B. (2017). The relationship between early maladaptive schemas, perceived maternal parenting style, emotion regulation difficulties and psyhological wellbeing (Unpublished master thesis). Doğuş University, Institute of Social Sciences.
• Çeçen, A. R. (2007). The Turkish short version of the Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale for adults (SELSA-S): Initial development and validation. Social Behavior and Personality, 35(6), 717-734. doi:10.2224/sbp.2007.35.6.717
• Çokluk, Ö., Şekercioğlu, G., & Büyüköztürk, Ş. (2012). Sosyal bilimler için çok değişkenli istatistik: SPSS ve LISREL uygulamaları [In Multivariable statistics for social sciences: SPSS and LISREL applications]. Ankara: Pegem Akademi.
• De Jong Gierveld, J. (1998). A review of loneliness: Concept and definitions, determinants, and consequences. Review in Clinical Gerontology, 8, 73-80. doi: 10.1017/S0959259898008090
• Demirli, A., & Demir, A. (2014). The role of gender, attachment dimensions, and family environment on loneliness among Turkish university students. Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools, 24(1), 62-75.
• Ditommaso, E., Brannen, C., & Best, L. A. (2004). Measurement and validity characteristics of the short version of the Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale for adults. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 64(1), 99-119. doi:10.1177/0013164403258450
• DiTommaso, E., & Spinner, B. (1993). The development and initial validation of the Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale for adults (SELSA). Personality and Individual Differences, 14, 127–134.
• Dvorak, R. D., Sargent, E. M., Kilwein, T. M., Stevenson, B. L., Kuvaas, N. J., & Williams, T. J. (2014). Alcohol use and alcohol-related consequences: Associations with emotion regulation difficulties. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 40(2), 125-130. doi:10.3109/00952990.2013.877920
• Ehring, T., & Quack, D. (2010). Emotion regulation difficulties in trauma survivors: The role of trauma type and PTSD symptom severity. Behavior therapy, 41(4), 587-598. doi:10.1016/j.beth.2010.04.004
• Eldoğan, D. (2012). The mediator role of emotion regulation difficulties on the relationship between early maladaptive schemas and the symptoms of social phobia in university students (Unpublished master thesis). Hacettepe University, Institute of Social Sciences.
• Erdeğer, N. (2001). Examining the level of loneliness and social support of high school students (Unpublished Master Thesis). Gazi University, Institute of Educational Sciences.
• Eres, R., Lim, M. H., Lanham, S., Jillard, C., & Bates, G. (2021). Loneliness and emotion regulation: Implications of having social anxiety disorder. Australian Journal of Psychology, 1-11. doi:10.1080/00049530.2021.1904498
• Fraenkel, J. R., Wallen, N. E., & Hyun, H. H. (2011). How to design and evaluate research in education. New York: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages.
• Geçtan, E. (1999). Psikodinamik psikiyatri ve normaldışı davranışlar [Psychodynamic psychiatry and abnormal behavior]. Metis Yayınları.
• Glenn, C. R., & Klonsky, E. D. (2009). Emotion dysregulation as a core feature of borderline personality disorder. Journal of Personality Disorders, 23(1), 20-28. doi:10.1521/pedi.2009.23.1.20
• Gratz, K. L., & Roemer, L. (2004). Multidimensional assessment of emotion regulation and dysregulation: Development, factor structure, and initial validation of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 26, 41-54.
• Green, L. R., Richardson, D. S., Lago, T., & Schatten-Jones, E. C. (2001). Network correlates of social and emotional loneliness in young and older adults. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27(3), 281-288. doi:10.1177/0146167201273002
• Gündüz, H. (2016). The relationship between mindfullness and emotion regulation among Turkish adults (Unpublished master thesis). Nişantaşı University, Institute of Social Sciences.
• Gürgen, A. (2017). Research on the childhood traumas and emotional regulation difficulties of patients having alcohol use disorder: Cross-sectional controlled study (Specialty thesis in Medicine). Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Faculty of Medicine.
• Deniz, M., Hamarta, E., & Ari, R. (2005). An investigation of social skills and loneliness levels of university students with respect to their attachment styles in a sample of Turkish students. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 33(1), 19-32. doi:10.2224/sbp.2005.33.1.19
• Horney, K. (2013). Çağımızın Nevrotik Kişiliği [The Neurotic Personality of Our Time]. İstanbul: Sel Yayıncılık.
• Karagöz, B., & Dağ, İ. (2015). The relationship between childhood maltreatment and emotional dysregulation in self mutilation: An investigation among substance dependent patients. Arch Neuropsychiatr, 52(1), 8-14. doi:10.5152/npa.2015.6769
• Kaya, S., & Gokler, R. (2017). University students’ loneliness and future time perspective as the predictors of their life satisfaction levels. New Trends and Issues Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences, 3(1), 338-345.
• Kılıç, M., & Karakuş, Ö. (2016). The study of the relationships between social appearance anxiety, self-esteem and loneliness level among university students. Journal of Human Sciences, 13(3), 3837-3852.
• Kılıç, Ş. D., & Alver, B. (2017). Üniversite öğrencilerinin yalnızlık düzeylerine psikolojik dayanıklılıkları arasındaki ilişkilerin bazı değişkenlere göre incelenmesi [Investigation of relationships between university students' psychological resilience to loneliness levels according to some variables]. International Journal of Education Technology and Scientific Researches, 2(3), 116-147.
• Koçak, R. (2005). Duygusal ifade eğitimi programının üniversite öğrencilerinin aleksitimi ve yalnızlık düzeylerine etkisi [The effect of emotional expession of educational program upon alexithymia and loneiness level of universty students]. Türk Psikolojik Danışma ve Rehberlik Dergisi, 3(23), 29-45.
• Leahy, R. L., Tirch, D., & Napolitano, L. A. (2011). Emotion regulation in psychotherapy: A practitioner's guide. Guilford Press.
• Mauss, I., Wilhelm, F., & Gross, J. (2004). Is there less to social anxiety than meets the eye? Emotion experience, expression, and bodily responding. Cognition and Emotion, 18(5), 631-642. doi:10.1080/02699930341000112
• Mennin, D. S., & Fresco, D. M. (2010). Emotion regulation as a framework for understanding and treating anxiety pathology. In A. M. Kring & D. M. Sloan (Eds.), Emotion regulation in psychopathology (pp. 356–379). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
• Neumann, A., van Lier, P. A., Gratz, K. L., & Koot, H. M. (2010). Multidimensional assessment of emotion regulation difficulties in adolescents using the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. Assessment, 17(1), 138-149.
• Nikmanesh, Z., Kazemi, Y., & Khosravi, M. (2015). Role of feeling of loneliness and emotion regulation difficulty on drug abuse. International Journal of Medical Toxicology and Forensic Medicine, 5(4), 185-91.
• Nicolaisen, M., & Thorsen, K. (2017). What are friends for? Friendships and loneliness over the lifespan—From 18 to 79 years. The International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 84(2), 126-158. doi:10.1177/0091415016655166
• Oruç, T. (2013). Research on the relation between loneliness and automatical thoughts of university students related with psycholosocial variables (Unpublished master thesis). Dokuz Eylül University, Institute of Education Sciences.
• Özkaya, G. (2017). Relati̇onship between loneli̇ness levels and hopelessness and life stisfaction of university students (Unpublished master thesis). Haliç University, Institute of Social Sciences.
• Öztürk, M. O., & Uluşahin, A. (2014). Ruh sağlığı ve bozuklukları [Mental Health and Disorders]. Nobel Tıp Kitabevleri.
• Pehlivan, B. (2017). The effects of university students' negati̇ve core beli̇efs, loneli̇ness, attachment styles on eati̇ng atti̇tudes (Unpublished master thesis). Okan University, Institute of Social Sciences.
• Pektaş, E. (2015). The investigation of the relationship between perceived parental acceptance- rejection and depression and trait anxiety of university students: The mediator role of emotion regulation (Unpublished master thesis). Hacettepe University, Institute of Social Sciences.
• Perlman, D., & Peplau, L. A. (1981). Toward a social psychology of loneliness. Personal Relationships, 3, 31-56.
• Qualter, P., Quinton, S. J., Wagner, H., & Brown, S. (2009). Loneliness, interpersonal distrust, and alexithymia in university students 1. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 39(6), 1461-1479. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2009.00491.x
• Rugancı, R. N., & Gençöz, T. (2010). Psychometric properties of a Turkish version of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 66(4), 442-455. doi:10.1002/jclp.20665
• Russell, D., Peplau, L. A., & Cutrona, C. E. (1980). The revised UCLA Loneliness Scale: Concurrent and discriminant validity evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39(3), 472-480.
• Russell, D., Cutrona, C. E., Rose, J., & Yurko, K. (1984). Social and emotional loneliness: An examination of Weiss's typology of loneliness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46(6), 1313. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.46.6.1313
• Sadler, W. A. (1978). Dimensions in the problem of loneliness: A phenomenological approach in social psychology. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 9(1), 157. doi:10.1163/156916278X00078
• Salimi, A. (2011). Social-emotional loneliness and life satisfaction. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 29, 292-295. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.11.241
• Salsman, N. L., & Linehan, M. M. (2012). An investigation of the relationships among negative affect, difficulties in emotion regulation, and features of borderline personality disorder. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 34(2), 260-267. doi:10.1007/s10862-012-9275-8
• Sarıbal, İ. (2017). The relation between attachment styles and interpersonal relationships, emotion regulation difficulties, and anxiety (Unpublished master thesis). Maltepe University, Institute of Social Sciences.
• Shi, R., Zhang, S., Zhang, Q., Fu, S., & Wang, Z. (2016). Experiential avoidance mediates the association between emotion regulation abilities and loneliness. PloS one, 11(12), 1-11. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0168536
• Southward, M. W., Christensen, K. A., Fettich, K. C., Weissman, J., Berona, J., & Chen, E. Y. (2014). Loneliness mediates the relationship between emotion dysregulation and bulimia nervosa/binge eating disorder psychopathology in a clinical sample. Eating and Weight Disorders-Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity, 19(4), 509-513. doi:10.1007/s40519-013-0083-2
• Süsen, Y. (2017). The role of affect-related smoking outcome expectancies in relations between emotion dsyregulation/negative urgency and smoking dependence (Unpublished master thesis). Yıldırım Beyazıt University, Department of Social Sciences.
• Şahin, M. A. (2019). The effect of perceived social support on loneliness and hopelessness in the elderly (Unpublished master thesis), Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University.
• Şaşmaz, İ. B. (2014). Early maladaptive schemas and difficulties in emotion regulation as the predictors of borderline personality disorder and bipolar disorder (Unpublished master thesis). Okan University, Institute of Social Sciences.
• Şeremet, A. (2019). The role of emotion regulation in the relationship between insecure attachment and loneliness (Unpublished master thesis). Anadolu University, Institute of Education Sciences.
• Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2013). Using multivariate statistics. (Vol. 6). Pearson Education, Boston.
• Tatsi, E., Kamal, A., Turvill, A., & Holler, R. (2019). Emotion dysregulation and loneliness as predictors of food addiction. Journal of Health and Social Sciences, 4(1), 43-58.
• Thompson, R. A. (1994). Emotion regulation: A theme in search of definition. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 59(2-3), 25- 52. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5834.1994.tb01276.x
• Werner, K., & Gross, J. J. (2010). Emotion regulation and psychopathology: A conceptual framework. In A. M. Kring & D. M. Sloan (Eds.), Emotion regulation and psychopathology: A transdiagnostic approach to etiology and treatment (pp. 13-37). New York, NY, US: Guilford Press.
• Yıldız, M. A. (2016). Multiple Mediation of Emotion Regulation Strategies in the relationship between loneliness and positivity in adolescents. Education and Science, 41(186), 217-231. doi:10.15390/EB.2016.6193
• Young, J. E., Klosko, J. S., & Weishaar, M. E. (2009). Şema terapi [Schema Therapy]. İstanbul, Litera Yayıncılık.