Aging & Social Change: Fourteenth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

The scientific study of loneliness, defined as a mismatch between the number and quality of social relations one has and desires, has garnered substantial attention in particular from scholars focusing on the individual level, but a sociological perspective remains underdeveloped. This study draws on sociological theories to propose a novel sociological life course theory for understanding loneliness. Combining sociological life course theory with a simplified socio-ecological model, we present four axioms of a sociological theory of loneliness, describing how life course trajectories in loneliness are shaped by human agency, early life inequalities, (timing of) life events, linked lives, various forms of capital, the community and the societal context. A subsequent in-depth analysis of sociological theories and insights will be used to specify each axiom into concise propositions. Based on existing sociological insights and theories, we argue the immediate environment and society, intersecting with individual characteristics, exert direct and indirect influences on an individual’s life course developments in loneliness. Current research findings further exemplify the applicability of these theories for the study of loneliness. Applying a sociological life course perspective to loneliness research offers several primary contributions: 1) increased focus on contextual influences to comprehend variation across time and space, 2) examination of interactions across micro, meso, and macro levels, and 3) providing insights for effective interventions to prevent and reduce loneliness that focus on a societal and community frame rather than an individual frame only.