Exploring loneliness in pre-adolescent children: frequency, vulnerable groups and mental health correlates

Loneliness in young people has become a global health issue, yet there is little data on the frequency with which children (especially under 10 years old) experience loneliness, and how loneliness associates with mental and physical health (e.g., somatic pain, internalising, externalising symptoms) at this important developmental juncture. It is also unclear whether widely used measures of loneliness can accurately capture these experiences in pre-adolescents. We investigated loneliness in 849 children (M = 8.76 years old, SD = 0.95) in East London and explored links between loneliness and their mental and physical health. Children self-reported on their levels of loneliness, mental and physical health; and teachers reported on children’s internalising and externalising problems. We estimated the psychometric properties of the 3-item UCLA-3A and the ONS direct measure of loneliness (ONS-1), explored loneliness links with demographic characteristics, and fit a Structural Equation Model (SEM) to test the associations of loneliness, mental health, and physical health. We found that the UCLA-3A showed acceptable internal consistency, and the ONS-1 showed a significant relationship to the UCLA-3A. There were no significant differences between any demographic groups, though age was significantly negatively correlated with loneliness. SEM showed that loneliness was significantly associated with all mental health symptoms, somatic pain, and some externalising and internalising symptoms. Our findings demonstrate that loneliness is a common experience amongst primary school aged children. Moreover, mental health, physical health, and internalising and externalising behaviours are cross-sectionally related to childhood loneliness.