Relationships between Interpersonal Goals and Loneliness in Older Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study

Francesca C. Ezeokonkwo (), Kathleen L. Sekula, Jeffrey E. Stokes, Laurie A. Theeke, Rick Zoucha, Meredith Troutman-Jordan and Dinesh Sharma
Additional contact information
Francesca C. Ezeokonkwo: School of Nursing, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA 22807, USA
Kathleen L. Sekula: School of Nursing, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA 15282, USA
Jeffrey E. Stokes: Department of Gerontology, McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies, University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA 02125, USA
Laurie A. Theeke: School of Nursing, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20006, USA
Rick Zoucha: School of Nursing, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA 15282, USA
Meredith Troutman-Jordan: School of Nursing, University of North Carolina Charlotte, Charlotte, NC 28223, USA
Dinesh Sharma: Department of Mathematics and Statistics, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA 22807, USA

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 3, 1-11

Abstract: Loneliness is linked to many physiological and psychological issues and disproportionately affects older adults. Interpersonal goals (compassion and self-image) are essential to interpersonal relationships; however, how they relate to loneliness in older adults is unknown. We investigated the impact of interpersonal goals on loneliness using the Ecosystem–Egosystem Theory of Social Motivation. This study, adopting a descriptive cross-sectional correlational design, used data from the 2016 Health and Retirement Study. Participants ( n = 3212) included people aged >65 years (mean age: 75; female: 60.1%). We performed exploratory factor analysis with principal axis factoring and varimax rotation to examine the suitability of compassionate and self-image goals as separate factors. The complex samples general linear model was used to assess the relationship between loneliness and interpersonal goals. Interpersonal goals were significantly negatively associated with loneliness. Respondents with higher compassion and self-image goals reported lower loneliness levels. Our results contribute to understanding how interpersonal goals relate to loneliness in older adults. These initial findings warrant further investigation.

Keywords: loneliness; interpersonal goals; compassionate and self-image goals; older adults (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/3/1914/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/3/1914/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:3:p:1914-:d:1042084

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().