Researching gender and loneliness differently.

The majority of research on loneliness considers gender by comparing the loneliness reported by men and women. Drawing on current conceptualizations of gender and its effects, we propose alternative ways in which gender should be examined in relation to loneliness. To do so, we consider multiple gender-related factors and the role of the social environment, particularly societal ideologies about what gender is and how it should be expressed.

Provision of a daily high protein and high energy meal: Effects on the physical and psychological wellbeing of community-dwelling, malnourished older adults; a randomised crossover trial.

Objectives: To determine whether daily provision of a high protein, high energy meal for 12-weeks to under-nourished older adults living independently in the community can improve physical, physiological, and psychological outcomes.

Design: A randomised crossover trial.

Setting: Participant homes within a 15-mile radius to meal supplier; Dartmoor Community Kitchen Hub.

Stigma salience increases loneliness among ethnic minorities.

Research shows that ethnic minorities are at increased risk of loneliness compared to the general population of the United Kingdom. We hypothesized that stigma salience increases loneliness among ethnic minorities, conducting two experimental studies with ethnic minorities (Study 1: N = 134, Study 2: N = 267) in which participants were randomly assigned to a stigma salience (recalling a personal experience of discrimination based on ethnicity) or control condition (recalling a past meal in Study 1 and the experience of reading a book in Study 2). Across these two studies, we demonstrated that stigma salience consistently increased self-reported loneliness relative to the control conditions.

Sleep and Socioemotional Outcomes Among Sexual and Gender Minority Adolescents: A Longitudinal Study.

Sexual and gender minority adolescents face specific stressors associated with their minority status, leading to compromised socioemotional outcomes and sleep. Sleep patterns have, in turn, been found to predict socioemotional outcomes. As such, we aimed to investigate whether healthy sleep patterns prospectively predicted socioemotional outcomes, and whether associations varied as a function of sexual and gender minority status.

Adolescent loneliness across the world and its relation to school climate, national culture and academic performance.

Background: Loneliness during adolescence has adverse consequences for mental health, education and employment outcomes. Yet, we know little about common correlates of loneliness among adolescents, making intervention work difficult.

Aims: In this study, we (1) explore individual-, school- and country-level correlates of loneliness to help identify potential intervention targets, and (2) examine the influence of loneliness on academic performance.

A systematic review of psychosocial functioning changes after gender-affirming hormone therapy among transgender people.

This systematic review assessed the state and quality of evidence for effects of gender-affirming hormone therapy on psychosocial functioning. Forty-six relevant journal articles (six qualitative, 21 cross-sectional, 19 prospective cohort) were identified. Gender-affirming hormone therapy was consistently found to reduce depressive symptoms and psychological distress.

Loneliness During the School Years: How It Affects Learning and How Schools Can Help.

Background: Substantial evidence links loneliness to poor academic outcomes and poor employment prospects. Schools have been shown to be places that mitigate or aggravate loneliness, suggesting a need to consider how schools can better support youth experiencing loneliness.

Methods: We conducted a narrative review on loneliness in childhood and adolescence to examine the literature on how loneliness changes over the school years and how it influences learning.

Loneliness in Older Migrants: Exploring the Role of Cultural Differences in Their Loneliness Experience.

Introduction And Background: The scientific literature suggests the necessity of studying loneliness from a broader social perspective. This article aims to broaden the research on loneliness in older migrants by exploring the role of cultural differences through the lens of the social environment (as measured in social capital, discrimination, and ageism) and social situation (as measured in relational mobility, childness, and marital status). Based on Hofstede's Individualism Index, older migrants involved in the BBC Loneliness Experiment (N = 2164) were classified into three groups: cultural migrants (i.

Benevolent and hostile sexism in a shifting global context.

The theory of and research on ambivalent sexism - which encompasses both attitudes that are overtly negative (hostile sexism) and those that seem subjectively positive but are actually harmful (benevolent sexism) - have made substantial contributions to understanding how sexism operates and the consequences it has for women. It is now clear that sexism takes different forms, some of which can be disguised as protection and flattery. However, all forms of sexism have negative effects on how women are perceived and treated by others as well as on women themselves.

Exploring the social dynamics of urban regeneration: A qualitative analysis of community members' experiences.

The present paper explores psychological processes that underpin the success of community change in the context of urban regeneration schemes. We adopt a social identity approach to develop an understanding of the ways in which social identity dynamics may impact upon peoples' experiences of regeneration, and what influence these identity processes have on the creation of new communities. Qualitative interviews, using thematic analysis as an analytic technique, were conducted with community members (n = 14) in a recently (2001-2011) regenerated area in the South-West of England.

Exploring the nature and variation of the stigma associated with loneliness.

The current study uses data from The British Broadcasting Corporation Loneliness Experiment to explore the social stigma of loneliness and how it varies by gender, age and cultural individualism. We examined stigmatizing judgements of people who are lonely (impressions of those who feel lonely and attributions for loneliness), perceived stigma in the community and self-stigma (shame for being lonely and inclination to conceal loneliness), while controlling for participants' own feelings of loneliness. The scores on most measures fell near the mid-point of the scales, but stigmatizing perceptions depended on the measure of stigmatization that was used and on age, gender and country-level individualism.

"The team needs to feel cared for": staff perceptions of compassionate care, aids and barriers in adolescent mental health wards.

Background: Compassion is vital in healthcare. Current understandings of the nature of compassionate care, its aids and barriers, are more theoretically developed than grounded in staff experience. This study explores staff perceptions of compassionate care in child and adolescent mental health wards.

Exploring the demographic and situational characteristics of older British people experiencing loneliness as positive within the BBC loneliness experiment.

Objectives: The aim of this study is to increase the understanding of loneliness experienced as positive, by exploring the demographic and situational characteristics of older people who experience loneliness as positive.

Method: Two binary logistic regressions were conducted using data from those aged 60+ from the BBC Loneliness Experiment ( = 5250).

Results: The first binary logistic regression compared participants who experience loneliness always as positive ( = 219) to those participants who never experience loneliness as positive ( = 3004).

Older adults' experiences of loneliness over the lifecourse: An exploratory study using the BBC loneliness experiment.

Purpose: To explore older adults' experiences of loneliness across the lifecourse and the relationship with current loneliness.

Methods: Our sample is 6,708 people aged 65 years and older, resident in the UK, who participated in the BBC Loneliness Experiment in spring 2018. Loneliness was assessed using the 3 item UCLA Loneliness Scale, using a threshold score of 6+ to define loneliness.

Choking under pressure: Does it get easier with age? How loneliness affects social monitoring across the life span.

Previous experimental work showed that young adults reporting loneliness performed less well on emotion recognition tasks (Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy [DANVA-2]) if they were framed as indicators of social aptitude, but not when the same tasks were framed as indexing academic aptitude. Such findings suggested that undergraduates reporting loneliness possessed the social monitoring skills necessary to read the emotions underlying others' facial expressions, but that they choked under social pressure. It has also been found that undergraduates reporting loneliness have better recall for both positive and negative social information than their non-lonely counterparts.

Exploring the Frequency, Intensity, and Duration of Loneliness: A Latent Class Analysis of Data from the BBC Loneliness Experiment.

Almost all measures of loneliness have been developed without discussing how to best conceptualize and assess the severity of loneliness. In the current study, we adapted the four-item UCLA, so that it continued to measure frequency of loneliness, but also assessed intensity and duration, providing a measure of other aspects of loneliness severity. Using data from participants resident in the UK who completed the BBC Loneliness Experiment (N = 36,767; F = 69.

Identity-Related Factors Protect Well-Being Against Stigma for Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming People.

Relatively little is known about identity-related resilience factors associated with well-being among transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) people. Drawing upon theory on stigma-related stress and resilience and work examining group identification as a buffer against discrimination, the aim of the current study was to model perceived discrimination, transgender identification, and gender identity affirmation as predictors of well-being for TGNC people. We also tested whether the positive association between gender identity affirmation and well-being might be explained by the benefits affirmation has for individual self-concept clarity.

Social relationship experiences of transgender people and their relational partners: A meta-synthesis.

Rationale: Social relationships are important in bolstering health and well-being for everyone in the general population. For transgender people, strong supportive social relationships may be paramount to their overall health and well-being due to their marginalised status in society.

Objective: This review aimed to investigate what is currently known about the social relationship experiences of transgender people and their relational partners (e.

Loneliness around the world: Age, gender, and cultural differences in loneliness.

The BBC Loneliness Experiment provided a unique opportunity to examine differences in the experience of lonelines across cultures, age, and gender, and the interaction between these factors. Using those data, we analysed the frequency of loneliness reported by 46,054 participants aged 16-99 years, living across 237 countries, islands, and territories, representing the full range of individualism-collectivism cultures, as defined by Hofstede (1997). Findings showed that loneliness increased with individualism, decreased with age, and was greater in men than in women.

When is women's benevolent sexism associated with support for other women's agentic responses to gender-based threat?

Three studies examine how women's benevolent sexism (BS) shapes support for other women's agentic responses to gender-based threat. In Study 1, women read vignettes about a woman who agentically responded (vs. no response) to gender-based threat (e.

Incidental fear reduces empathy for an out-group's pain.

Humans generally fear those different to them (i.e., an out-group) in the same way they fear natural predators.