The amount of financial debt held by older adults has grown substantially over the past two decades in Europe. This study examines the association of objective and subjective debt burden with social and emotional loneliness among 1,606 older adults in the Netherlands. Objective debt burden is based on financial terms, such as debt-to-income ratio; whereas subjective debt burden measures the psychological distress caused by financial debt. Data are from the 2015/2016 wave of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam. First, we use means-comparison tests to examine whether older adults who experience social and emotional loneliness differ from older adults who do not experience loneliness regarding their subjective and objective debt burdens. Subsequently, using linear regression models we address two questions: whether social loneliness and emotional loneliness are associated with objective and subjective debt burden; and whether social participation, social network size, anxiety and depression mediate these relationships. We find that subjective debt burden (i.e. the worry related to debt) is a significant predictor of social loneliness, above and beyond the role of social and psychological measures. Objective debt burden, in contrast, is unrelated to social and emotional loneliness. Social participation, social network size, anxiety and depression do not mediate the debt-burden-to-loneliness relationships. The results point to the importance of subjective debt burden in understanding social loneliness and designing interventions.

在过去的二十年中，欧洲老年人持有的金融债务数量大幅增加。这项研究调查了荷兰1606名老年人的客观和主观债务负担与社交和情感孤独感之间的关系。客观债务负担基于财务条款，例如债务与收入之比；而主观债务负担则衡量了金融债务造成的心理困扰。数据来自2015/2016年阿姆斯特丹纵向老龄化研究浪潮。首先，我们使用均值比较测试来检验经历社交和情感孤独感的老年人与没有经历孤独感的老年人在主观和客观债务负担方面是否有所不同。随后，使用线性回归模型，我们解决了两个问题：社会孤独感和情感孤独感是否与客观和主观的债务负担有关；以及社会参与度，社交网络规模，焦虑和抑郁是否介导了这些关系。我们发现主观债务负担（即有关债务忧虑）是社会孤独，超出的社会和心理措施的作用显著的预测。相反，客观的债务负担与社会和情感上的孤独无关。社会参与，社会网络规模，焦虑和抑郁并不能调解债务负担与孤独的关系。结果表明，主观债务负担对于理解社会孤独感和设计干预措施的重要性。