Aug 22 2018
All the Lonely Americans?
Is America in the middle of a loneliness epidemic?
Claims of rising loneliness are often part of a larger narrative about fraying social bonds in America. In this framing, loneliness is seen as one symptom among many of a larger set of problems. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently reported that between 1999 and 2016, the most recent year for which data are available, suicide rates had increased by almost 30 percent,1 and some states, such as New Hampshire, Vermont, and Utah, saw their rates increase by over 45 percent. Stories about the perpetually-plugged-in-but-socially-disconnected teen draw wide attention.2 Moreover, there is an emerging consensus in the research community that chronic loneliness has a number of negative consequences.3 Some scholars have even recently advanced the argument that it should be a public policy priority.4
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1 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Vital Signs: Trends in State Suicide Rates – United States, 1999-2016 and Circumstances Contributing to Suicide – 27 States, 2015," Suicide Rates Rising Across the U.S.," CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, June 8, 2018, https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6722a1.htm?s_cid=mm6722a1.
2 Jean M. Twenge, "Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?" The Atlantic, September 2017, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/.
3 See, for example, Nicole K. Valtorta, Mona Kanaan, Simon Gilbody, Sara Ronzi, and Barbara Hanratty, "Loneliness and Social Isolation as Risk Factors for Coronary Heart Disease and Stroke: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Longitudinal Observational Studies," Heart 102, no. 13 (2016): 1009-1016; Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Timothy B. Smith, and J. Bradley Layton, "Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review, PLoS Medicine 7, no. 7 (2010), http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316; Julianne Holt-Lunstad et al., "Loneliness and Social Isolation as Risk Factors for Mortality: A Meta-Analytic Review," Perspectives on Psychological Science 10, no. 2 (2015): 227-337; Andrew Steptoe, Aparna Shankar, Panayotes Demakakos, and Jane Wardle, "Social Isolation, Loneliness, and All-cause Mortality in Older Men and Women," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110, no. 15 (April 2013): 5797-5801; and Erin York Cornwell and Linda J. Waite, "Social Disconnectedness, Perceived Isolation, and Health among Older Adults," Journal of Health and Social Behavior 50, no. 1 (2009): 31-48.
4 See, for example, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Theodore F. Robles, and David A Sbarra, "Advancing Social Connection as a Public Health Priority in the United States," American Psychologist 72, no. 6 (2017): 517-530, https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/amp-amp0000103.pdf; and Julianne Holt-Lunstad, "The Potential Public Health Relevance of Social Isolation and Loneliness: Prevalence, Epidemiology, and Risk Factors," Public Policy & Aging Report 27, no. 4 (2017), 127–130.
