Family influences on adolescent loneliness

Shandong Normal University, Ji Nan, Shan Dong, 250000, China

^* Corresponding author: 202210300128@stu.sdnu.edu.cn

Abstract

Loneliness is one of the negative emotions that is often brought up in everyday life. Loneliness has a variety of negative effects and can lead to suicidal thoughts at best. Loneliness can be felt at different levels at different ages, and adolescents are the most likely to experience it. Therefore, interventions for adolescent loneliness are necessary. Among the many factors that influence adolescent loneliness, the family, as the environment that adolescents are most familiar with and most often exposed to, has a different impact on adolescent loneliness in different dimensions. There are many studies that directly explore family and adolescent loneliness, but the categories are rather heterogeneous. Therefore, this paper collates and summarises three main aspects, namely family function, parenting style, and parent-child relationship, and analyses the effects of these three aspects on adolescent loneliness, finding that they all negatively predict adolescent loneliness. Meanwhile, factors such as personality, peer attachment, and self-esteem play different roles. Therefore, the study suggests that parents should spend more time with their children and adopt positive parenting styles to reduce adolescent loneliness.