In the current study, data collected from Wave 6 of the Millennium Cohort Study (n = 11,872), a nationally representative sample survey of youth aged 14 years in the UK, are used to examine the prevalence of loneliness among this age-group, investigate the feelings associated with the experience of loneliness among youth, explore the risk factors for loneliness among young people, and learn how they coped with loneliness. Given recent findings that youth are vulnerable to loneliness, the study assesses the prevalence of loneliness among adolescents across some important sociodemographic characteristics, such as nation of residence, gender, and ethnicity. We also identify the kinds of social experiences that accompany loneliness during adolescence, exploring friendship, relations with parents, social support, and bullying. Our key finding is that, in addition to the absence of desired social relationships, which has been typically identified as the ultimate source of loneliness, the presence of undesirable and even harmful social relationships is a major source of loneliness. This study uniquely brings together psychological and sociological perspectives to understand the experience of youth loneliness.

在本研究中，数据来自千年队列研究的第6浪（n= 11,872），这是一项针对英国14岁以下年轻人的全国代表性样本调查，用于调查该年龄段的孤独感患病率，调查与年轻人孤独感相关的感受，探索孤独感的风险因素让他们了解年轻人如何应对孤独感。鉴于最近的发现，青年人容易受到孤独感的影响，该研究评估了一些重要的社会人口统计学特征（如居住国，性别和种族）中青少年的孤独感患病率。我们还确定了青春期孤独感伴随的各种社交经历，包括探索友谊，与父母的关系，社会支持和欺凌。我们的主要发现是，除了缺乏理想的社会关系之外，孤独通常被认为是孤独的最终根源，不良的甚至有害的社会关系的存在是孤独的主要根源。这项研究独特地结合了心理学和社会学的观点，以了解青少年的孤独感。