The present study used quantitative and qualitative methods to explore how lonely young people are seen from others’ perspectives, in terms of their personality, behavior, and life circumstances. Data were drawn from the Environmental Risk Longitudinal Twin Study, a cohort of 2,232 individuals born in the U.K. in the mid-1990s. When participants were aged 18, they provided self-reports of loneliness, and informant ratings of loneliness were provided by interviewers, as well as participants’ parents and siblings. Interviewers further provided Big Five personality ratings and detailed written notes in which they documented their perceptions of the participants and their reflections on the content of the interview. In the quantitative section of the article, regression analyses were used to examine the perceptibility of loneliness and how participants’ loneliness related to their perceived personality traits. The informant ratings of participants’ loneliness showed good agreement with self-reports. Furthermore, loneliness was associated with lower perceived conscientiousness, agreeableness, and extroversion and higher perceived neuroticism. Within-twin pair analyses indicated that these associations were partly explained by common underlying genetic influences. In the qualitative section of the study, the loneliest 5% of study participants (N = 108) were selected, and thematic analysis was applied to the study interviewers’ notes about those participants. Three themes were identified and named: “uncomfortable in own skin,” “clustering of risk,” and “difficulties accessing social resources.” These results add depth to the current conceptualization of loneliness and emphasize the complexity and intersectional nature of the circumstances severely lonely young adults live in.

本研究使用定量和定性方法来探讨如何从他人的角度看待孤独的年轻人，包括他们的个性、行为和生活环境。数据来自环境风险纵向双胞胎研究，该研究由 1990 年代中期在英国出生的 2,232 人组成。当参与者 18 岁时，他们提供了孤独感的自我报告，而孤独感的线人评级由采访者以及参与者的父母和兄弟姐妹提供。采访者进一步提供了大五人格评级和详细的书面笔记，他们在其中记录了他们对参与者的看法以及他们对采访内容的反思。在文章的定量部分，回归分析用于检查孤独感的可感知性以及参与者的孤独感如何与其感知的人格特征相关。参与者孤独感的知情人评级与自我报告表现出良好的一致性。此外，孤独感与较低的责任心、宜人性和外向性以及较高的神经质相关。双胞胎内分析表明，这些关联部分可以通过共同的潜在遗传影响来解释。在研究的定性部分，最孤独的 5% 的研究参与者（和外向性和更高的感知神经质。双胞胎内分析表明，这些关联部分可以通过共同的潜在遗传影响来解释。在研究的定性部分，最孤独的 5% 的研究参与者（和外向性和更高的感知神经质。双胞胎内分析表明，这些关联部分可以通过共同的潜在遗传影响来解释。在研究的定性部分，最孤独的 5% 的研究参与者（N = 108) 被选中，并且主题分析被应用于研究访问者关于这些参与者的笔记。确定并命名了三个主题：“对自己的皮肤感到不舒服”、“风险聚集”和“难以获得社会资源”。这些结果增加了当前对孤独的概念化的深度，并强调了严重孤独的年轻人所处环境的复杂性和交叉性。