Autonomy and loneliness – longitudinal within- and between-person associations among Swedish older adults

Abstract

Objectives

Loneliness is an important risk factor for mental and physical health over the life span. Little is known about psychosocial predictors and consequences of loneliness apart from social network characteristics. One important factor that may both prevent from, but also be affected by loneliness, is perceived autonomy.

Method

In the present study, we investigated the longitudinal association of loneliness and autonomy over four years among participants of the Swedish Health, Aging and Retirement Transitions in Sweden (HEARTS) study (n = 5718, age 60–66 at baseline). We used a latent curve model with structured residuals, which distinguishes within- and between-person associations and includes cross-lagged parameters.

Results

Higher levels of autonomy at baseline were associated with lower levels of loneliness, and increases in autonomy were associated with decreases in loneliness. When individuals felt more autonomous than usual, they also reported less loneliness. However, the cross-lagged paths were not significant, which means that autonomy did not predict loneliness over time on the within-person level, and loneliness did not predict autonomy over time.

Conclusion

Our findings show that higher autonomy was related to lower loneliness on different analytical levels, but the direction of effects is unclear. More research is needed to understand the development of this association over the life span.

Keywords:

• Loneliness
• autonomy
• self-efficacy/coping
• social support
• quantitative methods and statistics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

This dataset can be made available upon request and in accordance with applicable laws. For further information about accessibility of data, contact [email protected]

Additional information

Funding

Georg Henning was supported by a grant from the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Project Number 441444293). The HEARTS study was supported by the grants Dnr 2013-2291 and Dnr 2013-2300 from the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (FORTE).