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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Adolescent and Young Adult Psychiatry
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1466173
This article is part of the Research Topic Loneliness Among Youth and Young Adults View all 4 articles

The Relationship Between Loneliness and Internalizing Disorders Among Young Adults: The Mediating Role of Ego-Resilience

Provisionally accepted
Anita Padmanabhanunni Anita Padmanabhanunni Tyrone Pretorius Tyrone Pretorius *
  • University of the Western Cape, Bellville, South Africa

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The relationship between loneliness and internalizing disorders has been well established in psychological research. This study aims to build on existing research by exploring how different components of loneliness-isolation, relational connectedness, and collective connectedness-interact with ego-resilience to influence anxiety, depression, and hopelessness.The study participants were young adults (n = 337) who completed the University of California-Los Angeles Loneliness Scale, Ego Resilience Scale, Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, State-Trait Anxiety Scale, and Beck Hopelessness Scale. A regression-based moderation and mediation analysis was used to investigate the relationships between the components of loneliness, ego-resilience, and internalizing disorders.The results of correlational analysis demonstrated that the zero-order correlations between the components of loneliness, isolation, relational connectedness, and collective connectedness, on the one hand, and internalizing disorders, on the other hand, were all significant. Mediation analyses found that ego-resilience partly mediated the relationships between relational connectedness and internalizing disorders, the relationships between collective connectedness and internalizing disorders, and the relationships between isolation and internalizing disorders. Further, moderation analyses found that ego-resilience moderated the relationships between collective connectedness and relational connectedness, respectively, and hopelessness.This study highlights the central role of ego-resilience in mediating the effects of different facets of loneliness on internalizing disorders. Understanding the mediating and moderating role of ego-resilience can inform therapeutic approaches and interventions aimed at reducing the impact of loneliness on mental health.

    Keywords: Loneliness, internalizing disorders, Depression, Anxiety, Hopelessness, Ego-resilience

    Received: 17 Jul 2024; Accepted: 12 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Padmanabhanunni and Pretorius. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Tyrone Pretorius, University of the Western Cape, Bellville, South Africa

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