Study on loneliness
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Study on loneliness
The purpose of the study is to investigate the distribution of loneliness in America along with the geographical, social and economic groups specifically among middle-aged groups. The study will, therefore, be answering the following research question: What factors affect mid-aged adults’ likelihood of experiencing loneliness? I hypothesize that high-risk middle-aged adults such as those who recently divorced, lost their spouses, or close family members, the physically challenged, unemployed, or terminally ill are more likely to experience loneliness than the low-risk middle-aged adults. The results of this study will help inform the caregivers, healthcare officials, and relatives to better intervene on individuals experiencing loneliness before it advances to major depressive disorders.
This idea is similar to a study by van Winkle and colleagues (2017) in my literature review on depression and loneliness. In this regard, one of the leading social impairment linked to depression maybe the loneliness that results from depression. In the study, the researchers examined the contribution of negative appraisals of the social company to depression and loneliness. However, the idea is different from the study in that the study did not investigate the distribution of loneliness in America along with the geographical, social and economic groups, which the idea is investigating.
Design: Using a between-subject design this study will assess the factors that affect mid-aged adults' likelihood of experiencing loneliness. The independent variables are the adults’ gender, age and high-risk factors that the middle-aged men and women experience such as divorce, loss of their spouses, or close family members, the physical challenges, unemployment, or terminal illness. The dependent variable is the middle-aged adults’ loneliness level as defined by a battery of repeated tests as well as multiple standard measures of cognition (e.g., Tower of London task) (Knight, Air, and Baune, 2018).
Participants: I will recruit 200 men and 200 women through Twitter and Facebook. The eligible participants will be aged between 45 years and 65 years and open to different social, regional, occupational, religious, and economic groups. Half of the recruited men and women will have to have been in the past diagnosed with depression that has manifested through loneliness. The other half must not have current or preexisting loneliness and will be used as the control group. Every individual who will participate in the study to the end will be awarded a $20 gift card from Trader Joe’s supermarket for their time.
Material: completion of the questionnaires will require the participant to have access to a laptop or a smartphone, a Facebook or Twitter account to access the questionnaire as well as electronically submit it within the study timeframe of 2 months. Participants will complete a battery of repeated tests as well as multiple standard measures of cognition (e.g., Tower of London task) and subsequently rate their depression and loneliness measures (Knight, Air, and Baune, 2018). Specifically, I will be interested in domains relevant to productivity in daily tasks. The predictor of loneliness will be a failure to perform daily tasks efficiently. This questionnaire will require the participants to agree or disagree with 25 statements concerning their loneliness levels. An additional questionnaire will capture participants’ demographics such as divorce, loss of spouses, or close family members, the physical challenges, unemployment, or terminal illness, which are more likely to make the participant experience loneliness than the low-risk middle-aged adults.