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Theo van TilburgSociologie, Vrije Universiteit AmsterdamTheo.van.Tilburg@vu.nl

Existentiële eenzaamheid, zingeving en luisteren: Recente ontwikkelingen en de toekomst in eenzaamheidsonderzoek en praktijk

15e Nationaal GerontologiecongresEde, 1 november 2019

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• Is er existentiële eenzaamheid naast sociaal-emotionele eenzaamheid? Theo van Tilburg, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

• Eenzaamheid en zingeving - Anja Machielse, Universiteit voor Humanistiek

• Instrumenten voor een goed gesprek over eenzaamheid - Eric Schoenmakers, Fontys Hogescholen

Drie presentaties

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Theo van TilburgSociologie, Vrije Universiteit AmsterdamTheo.van.Tilburg@vu.nl

Is there Existential Loneliness beyond Emotional and Social Loneliness?

15e Nationaal GerontologiecongresEde, 1 november 2019

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Two conceptual approachesSocial-emotional Existential

Definition “The experiencing of a lag between realized and desired interpersonal relationships as disagreeable or unacceptable”

“Intolerable emptiness, sadness, and longing, that results from the awareness of one's fundamental separateness as a human being”; “Immediate awareness of being fundamentally separated from other people and from the universe”

Aspects Missing relationships; insufficient quality relationships; emptiness

Being separated from others, despite having other people around; lack of meaning in life; nothingness; emptiness; fundamental condition of human life

Causes Deficits in relationships; individual situation; societal context

Loneliness is inevitable and indispensable; everyone needs silence and introspection

Coping Improvement network; take away barriers; regulative coping

Not possible, or not desirable

Experience Negative; sometimes positive when loneliness problem has been solved

Mixture of negative and positive

Source De Jong Gierveld (1978, 1984); Perlman & Peplau (1981)

Bolmsjö et al. (2019); Ettema et al. (2010); Larsson et al. (2019); Moustakas (1961)

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Social-emotional ExistentialAspects Relationships MeaningEvaluation Negative Negative and positive

Two main differences

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• Developed by Mayers, Khoo, & Svartberg (2002)• 47 HIV+ women• Started with 32 items; 10 items excluded due to substantial misfit• Scale of 22 items

– Reasonably compatible with Rasch model– Internally consistent (Cronbach’s alpha = .90)

Existential Loneliness Questionnaire

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• Gökdemir-Bulut & Bozo (2018)• Study 1: 250 students; study 2: 240 61+• Converted items specific to HIV (#4, #8, #22) into general statements• Removed items #6, #11 due to low item-total correlations (20 items left)• Forced three factors

– Loneliness in social ties, 8 items – Loneliness in close relationships, 5 items – Finding meaning in life, 7 items

Follow-up research on the ELQ

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Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA)

• Focus: social, cognitive, emotional, and physical functioning

• N = 3,107 (54-84 yrs in 1992-93)N = 1,002 (54-65 yrs in 2002-03)N = 1,023 (54-65 yrs in 2012-13)Random sample: The Netherlands, eleven municipalities, three regions

• Cooperation rate: initial 62%; follow-up 89% - 97%

• Multiple point prospective panel design• 2018-2019: N = 1268 in analysisHuisman et al. (2011). International Journal of Epidemiology, 40, 868-876.

Amsterdam ZwolleOss

Germany

North Sea

Belgium

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Loneliness measurement in LASA

Existential• Translation + back-translation; 2x2

translators (Beaton et al., 2000)• Three HIV-related items and three

conditional items excluded;Two questions are 'direct‘;14 items addressing aspects

• Answering options: 'no!' 'no' 'more or less' 'yes' 'yes!'

• In second face-to-face ('medical') interview

Social, Emotional• De Jong Gierveld• Five, six items• Answering options: 'no'

'more or less' 'yes'• Additional: two direct

questions: 'sometimes' lonely, self-rating

• In first face-to-face interview

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16 items Existential Loneliness Questionnaire1. I am happy with the way I have lived my life3. There is a purpose to my life6. I am surrounded by strangers I cannot connect with8. I feel lonely12. I feel I have people I can trust and rely on if I need them16. I stay in bad relationships too long in order not to be alone18. I feel helpless21. I feel alone

23. I mean something to others24. Important relationships have ended or become weaker25. I feel at the mercy of the world26. I feel dead27. The universe is full of meaning29. I feel that there is little point to life30. No one else in the world can understand my feelings31. My world seems so different from everybody else's

Mayers et al., 2002; Items 9, 15, 17 not included due to conditional statement; items 7, 13, 32 not included due to HIV-specific content

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• Categorical variables• Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)

– 2 existential factors, inspired by Gökdemir-Bulut & Bozo (2018): ‘Loneliness in relationships’, 7 items‘Finding meaning’ (or: loss of meaning or purpose in life), 7 items

– 4 factors: ‘Existential’ (2x), ‘Social’, ‘Emotional’ (25 items)– 1 factor– Fit statistic: Chi2

• Explanatory factor analysis (EFA)– Searching for 2-11 factors– Comparison of models with Chi2– Factor loadings ≥ .40 (Pituch & Stevens, 2016)

Procedure: Factor analysis in Mplus

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• Confirmatory (CFA)– No fit with data in all models

• Explanatory (EFA)– No convergence: Problem occurred in Model with 7 factors– Comparison of models with Chi2: Model with more factors

significant improvement over Model with one factor less– In Models with ≥ 5 factors, only 4 factors with factor loadings ≥ .40

Results: Factor analysis

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EFA: two factors existential loneliness1. I am happy with the way I have lived my life3. There is a purpose to my life6. I am surrounded by strangers I cannot connect with12. I feel I have people I can trust and rely on if I need them16. I stay in bad relationships too long in order not to be alone18. I feel helpless23. I mean something to others

24. Important relationships have ended or become weaker25. I feel at the mercy of the world26. I feel dead27. The universe is full of meaning29. I feel that there is little point to life30. No one else in the world can understand my feelings31. My world seems so different from everybody else's

Four-factor Mplus model. Source: LASA 2018-2019; N = 1268 (data collection in progress); items 1, 3, 12, 23, 27 recoded in loneliness direction; all items / scale scores correlate positively

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EFA: Twee factoren existentiële eenzaamheid1. Ik ben gelukkig over hoe ik mijn leven heb geleid3. Mijn leven heeft een bepaalde bedoeling6. Ik ben omringd door vreemden met wie ik geen contact kan leggen12. Ik heb mensen waarop ik kan vertrouwen en rekenen wanneer ik daar behoefte aan heb16. Ik blijf te lang in een slechte relatie omdat ik niet alleen wil zijn18. Ik voel me hulpeloos

23. Ik beteken iets voor andere mensen 24. Belangrijke contacten zijn weggevallen of verwaterd25. Ik voel mij machteloos tegenover de wereld26. Het voelt alsof ik dood ben27. Deze wereld biedt vele mogelijkheden29. Het leven heeft weinig zin30. Niemand kan mijn gevoelens begrijpen31. Mijn wereld is totaal anders dan die van andere mensen

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N items Alpha

Value range

Mean SD

Self-rating 1 1-4 → 1-3 1.22 .45Sometimes I feel lonely 1 1-3 1.35 .65I feel lonely 1 1-5 → 1-3 1.33 .37I feel alone 1 1-5 → 1-3 1.32 .38Emotional loneliness 6 .79 1-3 1.21 .39Social loneliness 5 .84 1-3 1.21 .37Existential loneliness F1 9 .79 1-5 → 1-3 1.40 .23Existential loneliness F2 2 .42 1-5 → 1-3 1.65 .32

Descriptives loneliness instruments

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Self-rating

Some-times

I feel lonely

I feel alone

Emot. SocialExist.

F1Exist.

F2Self-rating 1 0.69 0.50 0.45 0.60 0.36 0.38 0.20Sometimes 0.69 1 0.47 0.46 0.59 0.29 0.33 0.17I feel lonely 0.50 0.47 1 0.71 0.47 0.35 0.61 0.24I feel alone 0.45 0.46 0.71 1 0.45 0.29 0.66 0.28Emotional 0.60 0.59 0.47 0.45 1 0.44 0.39 0.19Social 0.36 0.29 0.35 0.29 0.44 1 0.34 0.24Existential F1 0.38 0.33 0.61 0.66 0.39 0.34 1 0.31Existential F2 0.20 0.17 0.24 0.28 0.19 0.24 0.31 1

Spearman correlations

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Two-factor MINISSA model; Stress D^ = .005 (excellent fit). Source: LASA 2018-2019; N = 1268 (data collection in progress); all items / scale scores correlate positively (after recoding in loneliness direction)

-1,2

-0,2

0,8

1,8

-2,2 -1,2 -0,2 0,8 1,8 2,8 3,8

Social (e.g. “There are many people I can trust completely”

Existential “I feel alone”

Emotional (e.g. “I experience a general sense of emptiness”

Self-rating: “I am among the not-moderate-severe-extreme lonely people “

“I sometimes feel lonely” Existential “I feel lonely”

Existential F2 (“I mean something to others”;

“There is a purpose to my life” - reversed)

Plot of 8 loneliness measurements

Existential F1 (e.g. “I feel helpless”; “I feel dead”)

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Sex Age Partnered Network size

Self-rating 0.07 0.18 -0.36 -0.20Sometimes 0.11 0.15 -0.36 -0.13I feel lonely 0.04 0.13 -0.28 -0.23I feel alone 0.07 0.20 -0.36 -0.19Emotional 0.03 0.17 -0.33 -0.22Social -0.03 0.12 -0.20 -0.32Existential F1 0.02 0.31 -0.25 -0.27Existential F2 0.00 0.14 -0.13 -0.24

Known groups validity (Pearson correlations)

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0

0,1

0,2

0,3

0,4

0,5

0,6

61 71 81 91

Self-ratingSometimesI feel lonelyI feel aloneEmotionalSocialExistential F1Existential F2

Change in loneliness: Regression on age

Age

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• All correlations positive: ‘existential loneliness’ is not worth pursuing • Content of one factor corresponds with emotional loneliness

– Emotional loneliness and existential loneliness F1 correlates strongly with ‘direct’ loneliness measurements

• Other factor adds to concept: refers to lack of meaning in life– Factor consists of two items only; need for enlargement– Weakly related to aging; association with poor health? – Societal induced loneliness not observed (alienation, anomie)

• Methodological artefacts– Both face-to-face interviews, but different content– Time-lag between two interviews– Positively and negatively phrased items

Discussion

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Dank voor uw aandacht! Vragen?Theo.van.Tilburg@vu.nl

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Verder lezen

Zicht op eenzaamheidhttp://hdl.handle.net/1871/55577

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Universiteit van Nederland, www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_ppRkmrp-I&t=214s

Waarom helpt een potje bingo niet tegeneenzaamheid?

Eenzaamheid onder ouderen is iets dat niet alleen psychologisch, maar ook lichamelijk voor veel problemen kan zorgen. Dus wil je op hogere leeftijd een beetje sterk, sociaal vangnet om je heen hebben, dan moet je NU aan de slag. Want, zo vertelt Theo van Tilburg je in dit college, een potje bingo op z'n tijd zal weinig uithalen.

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Kleine letters• Disclaimer. Een deel van het gepresenteerde is wetenschappelijk

gepubliceerd. Andere resultaten zijn gebaseerd op onderhanden werk.• © VU Amsterdam 2019. Alle rechten voorbehouden. Niets uit deze

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