Underreporting loneliness: The role of gender, health, partner status, and migration background

Institute for Lifespan Development, Family, and Culture (LDFC) Research Colloquium

Previous research suggests that people belonging to social categories not typically associated with loneliness are less likely to admit feeling lonely. Drawing upon this research, we hypothesized that men, those in good health, partnered individuals, and migrants are less likely to admit feeling lonely because they are less socially expected to be lonely. Using data from Dutch, Moroccan, and Turkish individuals aged between 55 and 66 years in the Netherlands (N = 1,383), we examined this by assessing respondents’ reported loneliness on direct measurements of loneliness while controlling for an indirect measurement of loneliness. Findings showed that men, those in good health, and partnered individuals were less likely to admit feeling lonely when asked directly than women, those in poor health, and single individuals. We also found that migrants were less likely to admit loneliness on the direct measurement than non-migrants, but only when they had a high score on the indirect measurement of loneliness. We recommend future studies to be cautious when using direct loneliness measurements, and professionals to be aware of the tendency of specific groups to underreport loneliness.

Speaker

Milynn Koene

Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences (ESSB)  – Erasmus University Rotterdam 
PhD Candidate | Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI-KNAW)/University of Groningen

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