Social anxiety and loneliness are traits that have been studied extensively and independently. This is surprising given that the two lines of empirical research have produced almost identical findings, particularly those related to underlying mechanisms. Given the growing interest in both constructs, foundational research is needed to examine the tacit, untested assumption that the traits are distinct from each other, as well as from depression, another trait with established social correlates. Accordingly, an exploratory factor analysis and subsequent confirmatory factor analysis were conducted on two samples of 493 participants to evaluate one- (social anxiety-loneliness-depression), two- (social anxiety-loneliness, and depression), and three-factor models (social anxiety, loneliness, and depression) of these constructs. Results supported the three-factor model, indicating the three traits are best conceptualized as related, but distinct. These findings raise questions about the degree of overlapping fi...

中文翻译：

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社会焦虑感和孤独感是否最好地概念化为单一特质？

社交焦虑和孤独是被广泛和独立研究的特征。鉴于这两项实证研究产生了几乎相同的发现，尤其是与基础机制相关的发现，这令人惊讶。鉴于对这两种结构的兴趣日益浓厚，需要进行基础研究来检验这些特质彼此不同以及与抑郁症（具有已建立的社会关联的另一个特质）不同的默契，未经检验的假设。因此，对493名参与者的两个样本进行了探索性因素分析和随后的确认性因素分析，以评估一种（社交焦虑-孤独-抑郁），两种（社交焦虑-孤独和抑郁）以及三因素模型（这些结构的社交焦虑，孤独感和抑郁感。结果支持三因素模型，表明三个特征最好被概念化为相关的但截然不同的。这些发现提出了关于重叠的程度的疑问。