Loneliness Mindsets: A New Measurement Approach and Implications for Predicting Wellbeing

The prevalence of loneliness is rising, with both individual and societal costs, including a substantial mental health toll. Perhaps not surprisingly, given this upsurge, research focused on loneliness is proliferating. Of particular interest are the characteristics of lonely individuals and where to intercede to reduce loneliness. Interventions often focus on enhancing social skills, providing social support, offering opportunities for social interaction, and addressing maladaptive cognitions. In the current study, we seek to add to the literature on the importance of beliefs by focusing on individual differences in the meaning assigned to the nature of loneliness. Specifically, we investigate mindsets, first developing and validating a new Mindsets of Loneliness Assessment Tool (M-LAT) across two studies (N = 243; N = 382) using primarily university students. Analyses revealed four factors, which we call Lonely Attribute Mindset (LM_Attribute), Lonely People Mindset (LM_Person), Loneliness as Enhancing Mindset (LM_Enhancing), and Loneliness as Debilitating Mindset (LM_Debilitating). Lonely People and Debilitating Mindsets tended to correlate the strongest with social and psychological wellbeing. We discuss the need for future work investigating if mindset interventions targeting both of these types of mindsets can be leveraged to improve wellbeing, especially in the face of loneliness.