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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Commun.
Sec. Health Communication
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2024.1491806

A theoretical integration of the social skill deficit vulnerability model and social determination theory in examining young adult loneliness

Provisionally accepted
Timothy Curran Timothy Curran *Rebecca E. Elwood Rebecca E. Elwood
  • Utah State University, Logan, United States

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

    Loneliness is an urgent public health crisis that is associated with deleterious outcomes such as early mortality and mental health issues. This study investigates how interpersonal communication apprehension is linked to loneliness through the basic psychological human needs (Ryan, 1995). Guided by a theoretical integration of the social skill deficit vulnerability model and basic psychological needs theory, we examined survey reports from 406 participants.The results showed that interpersonal communication apprehension was related to all three basic psychological needs. Moreover, competence significantly mediated the link between apprehension and loneliness. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

    Keywords: Communication apprehension, Basic psychological needs, Loneliness, Social Skills, Mental Health

    Received: 05 Sep 2024; Accepted: 14 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Curran and Elwood. 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: Timothy Curran, Utah State University, Logan, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.