Chronically lonely teenagers may respond to social situations in ways that perpetuate rather than reduce their loneliness, say researchers.
For example, chronically lonely adolescents likely react to the rare social invitation with suspicion: “It’s not that I’m worthy, I just got lucky,” they'll tell themselves.
And when not included in a gathering of peers, the chronically lonely teen will attribute it to some personal flaw.
The research investigated whether the interpretations and emotions triggered when adolescents are included and excluded by peers differed between chronically lonely adolescents and adolescents with a more positive social history.
The study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, involved 730 adolescents in Belgium.
The researchers charted individual trajectories of loneliness based on four annual questionnaires. They found that most adolescents did not experience high levels of loneliness or if they did it was not long-lasting, but they also found a small subgroup of adolescents felt lonely year after year.
