How lonely are our children?

"The paucity of data on loneliness in children in Germany is alarming," says Prof Dr Susanne Bücker. The psychologist researches loneliness throughout the course of life at Witten/Herdecke University (UW/H). In her current study, she is focussing on children and adolescents between the ages of 9 and 15 - a particularly vulnerable age group that has received little to no attention in loneliness research to date. Prof Bücker: "Germany is lagging far behind other European countries in this area. There is a need for valid, target group-appropriate measuring instruments and close monitoring over a longer period of time in order to determine the extent to which children already experience loneliness, which risk factors favour this and what health consequences the feeling can have."

A questionnaire by children for children

This is precisely where the researcher's work comes in. Together with her team, Prof Dr Susanne Bücker has developed the first measuring instrument in Germany that is specifically tailored to children. A questionnaire is used that picks up the young study participants in their real lives and utilises a vocabulary that is suitable for children.

In order to design this questionnaire precisely, the researchers conducted qualitative interviews with children as "experts" and carried out trial runs within the target group. According to the researcher, even recently published studies investigating the experience of loneliness in older adolescents have so far used the same scientific methods as for adults. However, it has been shown that many of the terms used there, such as the word "isolated", are not tangible for children. "We have now removed these barriers and adapted the language to enable children to participate in the study independently, even at an early reading age. Our aim is to establish the questionnaire we have developed as a measurement tool in loneliness research throughout Germany," explains Prof Bücker.

Early prevention is crucial

In addition to personal feelings, the study collects information on character traits, general health and the socio-economic background of the children and young people in order to uncover possible correlations. Parents and guardians are also asked whether they recognise any signs of loneliness in their children. "The feeling of being alone is very subjective and sometimes incomprehensible to outsiders," reports Prof Bücker and continues, "but we know from studies on adults that chronic loneliness can lead to mental and physical illness." Another aim of the study is therefore to make the findings available for targeted intervention and prevention work so that symptoms do not manifest themselves permanently in early childhood. Important tools at this point include training for parents or other carers and the involvement of (all-day) schools so that warning signs can be recognised early and topics such as loneliness and maintaining social ties can be taught in children's everyday lives.

Study participants wanted

The scientific survey at the UW/H is initially scheduled to run for a period of five months - from December 2023 to April 2024. Interested participants, parents with children, are currently still being sought for the Germany-wide loneliness study. Participation is via a digital questionnaire that can be completed on your own computer or mobile device. The processing of the data is subject to data protection and results will only be published in anonymised form. The online phase will be followed by a further round of face-to-face interviews to be conducted at schools in order to recruit more participants.

Further information: Further information and instructions on how to participate can be found on the online study website: https://formr.uni-wh.de/PEERENT