The relationship of self-disclosure, interpersonal dependency, and life changes to loneliness in young adults.
Using a sample of 209 volunteer students between the ages of 18 and 25 from an urban university, the relationships between self-disclosure, interpersonal dependency, life changes, and loneliness were studied. Respondents completed the Jourard 40-Item Self-Disclosure Questionnaire, the Interpersonal Dependency Inventory, the Recent Life Change Questionnaire, and the revised UCLA Loneliness Scale. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients and multiple regression analysis were used to test the hypotheses. Hypotheses were supported predicting an inverse relationship between self-disclosure and loneliness (p less than .005) and a positive relationship between interpersonal dependency and loneliness (p less than .005). However, a positive relationship between life changes and loneliness was not supported. Data also supported the hypothesis that self-disclosure, interpersonal dependency, and life changes would account for greater variance in loneliness than any single variable alone (F(3,204 = 14.433), p less than .01). From a stepwise multiple regression analysis, self-disclosure and interpersonal dependency together accounted for 17.4 percent of the variance in loneliness. Implications for nursing practice are discussed with particular emphasis on potential strategies for preventing loneliness.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult / Q000523:psychology*; D003858:Dependency, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008016:Life Change Events; D008132:Loneliness; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012650:Self Disclosure; D012934:Social Isolation