I think, therefore I am: The contributions of threat interpretations in generating and managing youth loneliness

我思故我在：威胁解释对产生和管理青少年孤独感的贡献

• 批准号: ES/T00004X/2
• 负责人: Jennifer Lau
• 金额: $ 34.09万
• 依托单位: Queen Mary University of London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FT00004X%2F2
• 关键词: think; therefore; am; contributions; threat

Loneliness is a negative emotion that occurs when one perceives his/her social relationships and networks to fall short of his/her social needs. Because loneliness is thought to have evolved as a powerful motivator to connect with others and solicit their support, it may arise during periods of life that are characterised by social turbulence. One such period is youth, where there are major changes in the external social environment such as the amount of time spent with peers and in the emergence of new peer hierarchies and cliques - but also in internal factors, such as the need for peer approval and the aversiveness of peer rejection. Accordingly, as these social changes may bring about instability in social relationships, loneliness can arise to facilitate re-connection with others, and therefore be considered a normal part of growing up for many young people. However for some young people loneliness can be intense, upsetting and persistent, predicting poorer mental and physical health. Delivering interventions to manage loneliness in youth is therefore crucial, made more so as this may reflect a period of plasticity for learning more effective ways of regulating emotions. As some negative thinking styles such as a tendency to endorse threatening over benign expectations and explanations of ambiguous social situations is associated with youth loneliness, measuring and targeting these earlier in life may be a powerful 'vaccine' for reducing the risk of loneliness.However before any early interventions programs are planned around the targeting of threat interpretations, there are some key questions that need to addressed. First there is only one study showing that threat interpretations precede and predict risk for loneliness rather than reflect consequences. Disentangling these roles may inform whether it is useful to modify threat interpretations in order to alter loneliness. In addition it is not clear whether threat interpretations affect loneliness by influencing social withdrawal behaviour, as theories would suggest. Second all studies investigating threat interpretations in relation to loneliness have used questionnaires about hypothetical social scenarios rather than directly assess thoughts to real-life events. Establishing the relationship between threat interpretations and loneliness in everyday life is important, again for informing whether it is helpful to modify these thinking styles to alter lonely feelings. Finally, although methods have been developed for challenging threat interpretations related to other social behavioural problems like social anxiety, it is not clear if these methods are as relevant to and well tolerated by young people who are lonely.The goals of this research are to address these questions. Three studies will be performed. First a longitudinal study of around 1000 young people will be conducted to examine the cross-time relationships between threat interpretations, social withdrawal and loneliness with a nested interview study supplementing quantitative data. Second an ecological momentary assessment study that assesses threat interpretations to real social situations and loneliness at several times in the day for a week will be conducted to investigate these relationships in daily life. Finally, together with some young people we will develop some materials for a training program that aims to modify threat interpretations. These will then be presented to another group of young people to assess for relevance, acceptability and how helpful and feasible such an intervention is. Potential effectiveness at reducing loneliness and threat interpretations, and changing social behaviour will be considered.These studies will generate data to support further investigation into cognitive interventions for youthloneliness and contribute to the national dialogue on loneliness between professionals/practitioners working with youth, policymakers, the public and young people themselves.

孤独是一种负面情绪，当一个人认为他/她的社会关系和网络无法满足他/她的社会需求时就会出现。因为孤独被认为已经发展成为与他人联系并寻求他们支持的强大动力，所以它可能会在以社会动荡为特征的生活时期出现。其中一个时期是青年时期，外部社会环境发生了重大变化，例如与同龄人相处的时间以及新的同龄人等级制度和派系的出现，但内部因素也发生了重大变化，例如需要获得同龄人的认可和支持。对同伴拒绝的厌恶。因此，由于这些社会变化可能会带来社会关系的不稳定，孤独感可能会出现，以促进与他人的重新联系，因此被认为是许多年轻人成长过程中的正常部分。然而，对于一些年轻人来说，孤独感可能是强烈的、令人不安的和持续的，预示着他们的心理和身体健康状况会较差。因此，提供干预措施来管理青少年的孤独感至关重要，更重要的是，这可能反映出一段可塑性时期，可以学习更有效的情绪调节方法。由于一些消极的思维方式，例如倾向于支持威胁而不是善意的期望和对模棱两可的社会情境的解释，与青少年的孤独感有关，因此在生命早期测量和瞄准这些消极思维方式可能是降低孤独风险的强大“疫苗”。任何早期干预计划都是围绕威胁解释的目标来规划的，但有一些关键问题需要解决。首先，只有一项研究表明，威胁解释先于并预测孤独风险，而不是反映后果。理清这些角色可能会告诉我们，为了改变孤独感而修改威胁解释是否有用。此外，尚不清楚威胁解释是否如理论所暗示的那样，通过影响社交退缩行为来影响孤独感。其次，所有调查与孤独相关的威胁解释的研究都使用了关于假设的社会场景的调查问卷，而不是直接评估对现实生活事件的想法。在日常生活中建立威胁解释和孤独感之间的关系很重要，这也有助于了解改变这些思维方式是否有助于改变孤独感。最后，尽管已经开发出一些方法来挑战与社交焦虑等其他社会行为问题相关的威胁解释，但尚不清楚这些方法是否与孤独的年轻人相关并能被孤独的年轻人良好地容忍。这项研究的目标是解决这些问题。将进行三项研究。首先，将对约 1000 名年轻人进行纵向研究，通过补充定量数据的嵌套访谈研究来检验威胁解释、社交退缩和孤独感之间的跨时间关系。其次，将进行一项生态瞬时评估研究，评估对真实社会情境和孤独感的威胁解释，持续一周，以调查日常生活中的这些关系。最后，我们将与一些年轻人一起为旨在修改威胁解释的培训计划开发一些材料。然后，这些内容将提交给另一组年轻人，以评估其相关性、可接受性以及这种干预措施的帮助性和可行性。将考虑减少孤独感和威胁解释以及改变社会行为的潜在有效性。这些研究将产生数据，以支持进一步调查青年孤独症的认知干预措施，并有助于与青年、政策制定者、社会群体合作的专业人士/从业者之间就孤独问题进行全国对话。公众和年轻人本身。

项目成果

Identifying characteristics of adolescents with persistent loneliness during COVID-19: A multi-country eight-wave longitudinal study

识别 COVID-19 期间持续孤独的青少年的特征：一项多国八波纵向研究

• DOI: http://dx.10.1002/jcv2.12206
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: JCPP Advances
• 作者: Riddleston L

A call for better research and resources for understanding and combatting youth loneliness: integrating the perspectives of young people and researchers

呼吁提供更好的研究和资源来理解和对抗青年孤独感：整合年轻人和研究人员的观点

• DOI: http://dx.10.1007/s00787-022-02127-y
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
• 影响因子: 6.4
• 作者: Alam I

The Impact of Interpretation Biases on Psychological Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Prospective Study.

解释偏差对 COVID-19 大流行的心理反应的影响：一项前瞻性研究。

• DOI: http://dx.10.1007/s12529-022-10079-5
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: International journal of behavioral medicine
• 影响因子: 2.7
• 作者: Chan FHF

A call for better research and resources for understanding and combatting youth loneliness: integrating the perspectives of young people and researchers.

呼吁提供更好的研究和资源来理解和对抗青年孤独感：整合年轻人和研究人员的观点。

• DOI: http://dx.10.1007/s00787-022-02125-0
• 发表时间: 2024
• 期刊: European child & adolescent psychiatry
• 影响因子: 6.4
• 作者: Alam I

Young people's recommended coping strategies to manage social isolation: Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in the UK

年轻人管理社会隔离的建议应对策略：英国 COVID-19 大流行封锁的经验教训

• DOI: http://dx.10.1016/j.crbeha.2023.100133
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Current Research in Behavioral Sciences
• 作者: Jong A