Volume 31, Issue 1 (3-2024)
RJMS 2024, 31(1): 0-0 |
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Research code: ندارد
Ethics code: IR.TABRIZU.REC.1402.081
Clinical trials code: کارآزمایی نیست
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Bayrami M, bagheri O, Ghayerin E, jabbary S. The role of child's attitude towards parents, manifest anxiety, hopelessness, number of siblings and age in predicting feelings of loneliness. RJMS 2024; 31 (1)
URL: http://rjms.iums.ac.ir/article-1-8050-en.html
URL: http://rjms.iums.ac.ir/article-1-8050-en.html
, Elnazghayerin@gmail.com
Abstract: (272 Views)
Background &Aims: Loneliness is an unpleasant feeling caused by a person's inability to establish and maintain relationships. As a result of this feeling, the person becomes more aware of the threat. In this way, the feeling of vulnerability is intensified in him or her. Next, seclusion and isolation occur; which not only aggravates the feeling of loneliness but also leads to physical and mental problems (1,7). The feeling of loneliness may occur at any stage of life, but this feeling has a special connection with adolescence. Adolescents enter a stage of life where many changes are made in the cognitive and physiological fields. On the other hand, there are significant changes in the social expectations of the person. Cognitive changes specific to these ages can change the form and extent of this feeling. In addition, adolescence is a path towards adulthood, and success or failure in solving the challenges of this period directly affects future periods (7). If this feeling continues, the consequences will intensify. As a result, individual and social well-being is disturbed. Therefore, it is important to examine the factors involved in the emergence of this feeling (1,2,4,8). Based on previous studies, loneliness appears to be related to factors such as the child's attitude toward parents, manifest anxiety, hopelessness, number of siblings, and age (3,10,22,26,16). Therefore, the purpose of this research is to predict the feeling of loneliness based on the child's attitude towards parents, manifest anxiety, hopelessness, number of siblings, and age.
Methods: The research method is descriptive-correlation. The statistical population consists of all the boys aged 11 to 17 in Tehran, of which 191 were selected by available sampling. Initially, 200 questionnaires were distributed, because some participants refused to continue the research and it seemed that some questionnaires were filled based on a repetitive pattern, they were discarded and the rest of the questionnaires, i.e. 191 questionnaires, were examined. The samples were selected from 6 schools in Tehran in the academic year 1401-1400. They responded to the Children's Loneliness Scale (Asher et al., 1984), the Child’s Attitude Toward Father and Mother Questionnaire (Giuli & Hudson, 1977), A revised measure of children's manifest anxiety (Reynolds & Richmond, 1978), The hopelessness scale (Kazdin et al., 1983). They also reported the number of siblings and their ages. Research data were analyzed by using correlation and multiple regression analysis in spss22.
Results: The obtained results showed that the factors of a child's attitude towards the father, hopelessness, the number of siblings, and age can predict loneliness in adolescent boys (P < 0.05) and also these variables predict 21% of the variance of loneliness scores. Statistical coefficients show that the scale of attitude towards father (negative attitude) (P<0.05, β=0.22), hopelessness (P<0.05, β=0.29), number of siblings (P<0.05, β=0.14), and age (P<0.05, β=0.20) has a significant positive effect on loneliness and vice versa. However, the score of attitudes toward the mother (P<0.05, β=0.01) and manifest anxiety (P<0.05, β=0.04) does not affect the scores of loneliness. In addition, the strongest predictor of loneliness scores was hopelessness scores.
Conclusion: As has been observed before (10-14), in the present study we also concluded that the quality of the relationship with the father plays an important role in predicting the loneliness of boys during adolescence. But because the relationship between the attitude towards fathers and younger sons has not been seen before (13), probably, such an effect is because, at this age, the teenager takes a role model from his father to achieve social acceptance, so when the adolescent boy has a positive attitude, He doesn't have his father, he can't find a suitable role model, and therefore his social needs remain unanswered and the feeling of loneliness intensifies in him. In our study, we did not find any relationship between the attitude towards the mother and loneliness, and this shows that the attitude towards the mother is probably not important to boys in the occurrence of feelings of loneliness at this age. This case may indicate that the attitude towards the father plays a more important role in the adolescent boy's feelings about his relationship with society than the attitude towards the mother.
Although we expected anxiety to be a predictor of loneliness (3, 16-20), we did not find such a relationship. probably because of the social dimensions of loneliness, only a certain type of anxiety, social anxiety (17, 19), is related to it, and other types of anxiety cannot be related to loneliness. Usually, people look for social support when anxiety occurs, unless they have social anxiety, so probably this search for social support makes the person not feel alone.
As expected, (22, 23, 25), hopelessness can directly predict feelings of loneliness. If a person feels hopeful, he looks for people to help him and thus his loneliness is reduced. But the desperate person does not make any effort because he has no hope of finding a supporter and loneliness remains or even worsens. Hope is a force to move towards a society with a positive vision and can save a person from loneliness.
In the present study, contrary to previous reports (26 and 28), we found that the number of siblings can directly predict the level of loneliness. To explain this result, it can be said that in the relationship between the number of siblings and loneliness, probably cultural differences, the dispersion of the number of siblings, and the age range of the studied group play an important role. Therefore, the culture can consider the number of siblings as a factor to reduce the feeling of loneliness or, on the contrary, as a factor to increase the comparison and consequently increase the feeling of loneliness. On the other hand, probably when the number of family members increases or decreases, the social and economic level of family’s changes, and this itself is considered another variable that changes the result. So, less dispersion in this field makes a more appropriate comparison. It even seems that in adolescence, where comparison and competition between siblings are more than support and friendship, the relationship between the number of siblings and feelings of loneliness is different from other periods of life. In addition, it is likely that with the increase in the number of siblings, the attention that adolescent children need from their parents decreases, and this is a factor that increases the feeling of loneliness in them as the number of siblings increases.
By comparing the results of the present study with previous studies (28 and 29), it seems that the relationship between age and loneliness is non-linear. Probably, the peak age of loneliness is related to adolescence and then decreases (5, 13, 14, and 30-32). Because in this age range, the person's duties change and over time, society's expectations from the person become more difficult. More independence is expected from the individual. Changes in external conditions are associated with physical changes caused by puberty, and certain psychological changes occur in adolescence. Probably the result is creating and intensifying the feeling of loneliness.
Therefore, the child's attitude towards the father, the feeling of hopelessness, the number of siblings, and age can directly predict the level of loneliness in adolescent boys; the feeling of hopelessness is the strongest predictor of the feeling of loneliness among the research variables. However, the attitude towards the mother and obvious anxiety are not related to the feeling of loneliness in teenagers. According to the present result, we will be able to have a better understanding of the feeling of loneliness and therefore design effective interventions to reduce the feeling of loneliness.
Methods: The research method is descriptive-correlation. The statistical population consists of all the boys aged 11 to 17 in Tehran, of which 191 were selected by available sampling. Initially, 200 questionnaires were distributed, because some participants refused to continue the research and it seemed that some questionnaires were filled based on a repetitive pattern, they were discarded and the rest of the questionnaires, i.e. 191 questionnaires, were examined. The samples were selected from 6 schools in Tehran in the academic year 1401-1400. They responded to the Children's Loneliness Scale (Asher et al., 1984), the Child’s Attitude Toward Father and Mother Questionnaire (Giuli & Hudson, 1977), A revised measure of children's manifest anxiety (Reynolds & Richmond, 1978), The hopelessness scale (Kazdin et al., 1983). They also reported the number of siblings and their ages. Research data were analyzed by using correlation and multiple regression analysis in spss22.
Results: The obtained results showed that the factors of a child's attitude towards the father, hopelessness, the number of siblings, and age can predict loneliness in adolescent boys (P < 0.05) and also these variables predict 21% of the variance of loneliness scores. Statistical coefficients show that the scale of attitude towards father (negative attitude) (P<0.05, β=0.22), hopelessness (P<0.05, β=0.29), number of siblings (P<0.05, β=0.14), and age (P<0.05, β=0.20) has a significant positive effect on loneliness and vice versa. However, the score of attitudes toward the mother (P<0.05, β=0.01) and manifest anxiety (P<0.05, β=0.04) does not affect the scores of loneliness. In addition, the strongest predictor of loneliness scores was hopelessness scores.
Conclusion: As has been observed before (10-14), in the present study we also concluded that the quality of the relationship with the father plays an important role in predicting the loneliness of boys during adolescence. But because the relationship between the attitude towards fathers and younger sons has not been seen before (13), probably, such an effect is because, at this age, the teenager takes a role model from his father to achieve social acceptance, so when the adolescent boy has a positive attitude, He doesn't have his father, he can't find a suitable role model, and therefore his social needs remain unanswered and the feeling of loneliness intensifies in him. In our study, we did not find any relationship between the attitude towards the mother and loneliness, and this shows that the attitude towards the mother is probably not important to boys in the occurrence of feelings of loneliness at this age. This case may indicate that the attitude towards the father plays a more important role in the adolescent boy's feelings about his relationship with society than the attitude towards the mother.
Although we expected anxiety to be a predictor of loneliness (3, 16-20), we did not find such a relationship. probably because of the social dimensions of loneliness, only a certain type of anxiety, social anxiety (17, 19), is related to it, and other types of anxiety cannot be related to loneliness. Usually, people look for social support when anxiety occurs, unless they have social anxiety, so probably this search for social support makes the person not feel alone.
As expected, (22, 23, 25), hopelessness can directly predict feelings of loneliness. If a person feels hopeful, he looks for people to help him and thus his loneliness is reduced. But the desperate person does not make any effort because he has no hope of finding a supporter and loneliness remains or even worsens. Hope is a force to move towards a society with a positive vision and can save a person from loneliness.
In the present study, contrary to previous reports (26 and 28), we found that the number of siblings can directly predict the level of loneliness. To explain this result, it can be said that in the relationship between the number of siblings and loneliness, probably cultural differences, the dispersion of the number of siblings, and the age range of the studied group play an important role. Therefore, the culture can consider the number of siblings as a factor to reduce the feeling of loneliness or, on the contrary, as a factor to increase the comparison and consequently increase the feeling of loneliness. On the other hand, probably when the number of family members increases or decreases, the social and economic level of family’s changes, and this itself is considered another variable that changes the result. So, less dispersion in this field makes a more appropriate comparison. It even seems that in adolescence, where comparison and competition between siblings are more than support and friendship, the relationship between the number of siblings and feelings of loneliness is different from other periods of life. In addition, it is likely that with the increase in the number of siblings, the attention that adolescent children need from their parents decreases, and this is a factor that increases the feeling of loneliness in them as the number of siblings increases.
By comparing the results of the present study with previous studies (28 and 29), it seems that the relationship between age and loneliness is non-linear. Probably, the peak age of loneliness is related to adolescence and then decreases (5, 13, 14, and 30-32). Because in this age range, the person's duties change and over time, society's expectations from the person become more difficult. More independence is expected from the individual. Changes in external conditions are associated with physical changes caused by puberty, and certain psychological changes occur in adolescence. Probably the result is creating and intensifying the feeling of loneliness.
Therefore, the child's attitude towards the father, the feeling of hopelessness, the number of siblings, and age can directly predict the level of loneliness in adolescent boys; the feeling of hopelessness is the strongest predictor of the feeling of loneliness among the research variables. However, the attitude towards the mother and obvious anxiety are not related to the feeling of loneliness in teenagers. According to the present result, we will be able to have a better understanding of the feeling of loneliness and therefore design effective interventions to reduce the feeling of loneliness.
Type of Study: Research |
Subject:
Clinical Psychiatry
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