The Lived Experience of Childhood Loneliness: A Phenomenological Study

Abstract

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the experience of childhood loneliness from the perspective of the child. Fourteen children aged 8 to 10 years, from middle-class White families were interviewed regarding their experiences of loneliness. Data were analyzed using Spiegelberg's (1982) method of phenomenological analysis. Thematic analysis involved a search for the experiential structures that made up the experience of loneliness. Nine themes were discovered, each presenting an aspect of the phenomenon. Unhappily Disconnected was intuited as a unity of meaning for the complex and multidimensional experience of childhood loneliness. New insights and understandings of this phenomenon may enable nurses to care more sensitively for children who are lonely.