为什么我们如此孤独?

Is there any connection between loneliness and social isolation? If someone has a group of friends and family but feels lonely, can that lead them to turn away from their contacts and become socially isolated?  

There’s a lot more attention right now to how these processes play out over time. 社会关系可能是压力和紧张的来源, 但有时候，要打破一种联系或退出一种社会关系并不是那么容易的, 例如, 或者看护义务. 这些义务的压力会导致人们从社会关系中退缩或退缩. 如果有，他们还有其他社会关系吗? 它们会形成新的吗? 还是他们在社会上变得孤立?

还有什么能解释社会孤立的增加呢?

It could be that we are more socially isolated because, 电子游戏正规平台表明, 我们花在朋友身上的时间越来越少, 我们花在家人身上的时间越来越少, we’re not volunteering as much as people were decades ago. 但也有这些更广泛的人口趋势导致了社会孤立. 例如，人们比过去住得离家人更远. 人们生育的孩子越来越少. 结婚率下降. When we look at trends in social connections and social isolation, 如果我们看的是 你有几个孩子? 你有几个家庭成员? 是的，这是在下降. 所有这些因素都起了作用.

你的电子游戏正规平台还关注了随着年龄的增长，生活中的重大转变会如何影响我们的社会关系.

是的，比如退休，是一个人生活中的重大转变，可能会扰乱他们的社交网络. 如果他们每天都去上班的话, 去办公室, 看到人们, 然后就不存在了, 它会导致社会孤立. 丧偶是造成社会孤立的另一个原因, especially if someone shared a lot of social ties with their deceased spouse. 有时去世的配偶是连接者，是更大的朋友圈中的粘合剂.

So you lose your network of friends in addition to your spouse.

这是可能发生的. 健康也是一个重要因素. 随着流动性的下降, it becomes harder to do things like get together with friends, 从事活动或宗教服务, 或志愿者.

Why did you choose to focus on later-life adults in your research?

Later life is this part of the life course where there’s so much happening. 有这些过渡, 就像我之前提到的:失去亲人, 退休, 成为祖父母, 健康的变化. 所有这些变化都会改变日常活动的节奏，并可能影响社会关系. You kind of see the culmination of all of these things that happened from infancy through childhood and adulthood—and to still be able to observe changes in people’s well-being at that later point in the life course is really fascinating.

You seem to be describing a situation in which our social connections can actually influence our physical health. 这是真的吗??

绝对. There’s a lot of evidence that social ties can actually have as significant an effect on health as things like smoking and physical activity. 在我的一些工作中, I’ve found that older adults who increase their social network over a five-year period have better sensory functioning. We might not initially think of sensory health as being as important as, 说, 心血管健康, but we’re talking about the ability to see and hear and smell. These are things that affect the quality of everyday life in really important ways.

Do we know why improved social connections provide these benefits?

我不是医生, 但有一种观点认为我们的感觉系统可能具有可塑性的特征, and that our social life is potentially a source of stimulation and enrichment. 例如，我们在认知中看到了这一点. 有一种“要么使用，要么失去”的理论认为，如果你在使用你的认知能力，你就能保持它们. People often think of things like doing crossword puzzles. But there are also things like going out and socializing with people, 维持一个庞大的社交网络, 参与不同的社会活动也有助于认知健康.

你在2023年与人合著的论文中进行的电子游戏正规平台有哪些亮点, “站在我身边:实时的社会关系和健康”?

这是一个有趣的电子游戏正规平台. We used data that we gathered from older adults who were living in Chicago, 但我们收集数据的方式与其他关于社会生活和健康的电子游戏正规平台略有不同. 通常, 对老年人的调查是通过访谈进行的, or by having participants write their responses on paper. And these surveys are conducted once, or maybe every year or every five years. 我们做了所有这些，但我们也要求老年人随身携带智能手机一周. 一天五次, they were pinged on the phone and asked to respond to a bunch of questions about what they were doing at that very moment—who they were with, 他们在哪里?, 他们的压力有多大, 有多累, 多么幸福, 多么充满活力. 所以在这篇论文中，我们提出了这个问题 在某一特定时刻与他人在一起是否会影响人们对自己健康状况的感觉?

结果是什么?

We found that being in the company of somebody else at a given moment leads to older adults feeling less fatigued and feeling less stressed in that given moment. This 当然 mirrors a lot of findings that we already have in the literature, but the kind of contribution here is looking at this moment by moment, as opposed to asking more general questions about how socially connected someone is. 这表明社会联系不仅仅是某种长期的、静态的事情. 这并不是说我们要么一直都有社会联系，要么根本就没有社会联系. 社会联系可以在我们所谓的实时或瞬间的基础上改变和展开.

It sounds like we may actually draw energy from being around people. 大概是我们喜欢的人?

这是个好问题. We don’t know if these are people they like but we did find that these effects are especially strong when older adults report being with a friend or with a neighbor. They’re more likely to engage in recreational activities like socializing, 出去吃饭, 一起做些有趣的事. 而对于家庭来说, older adults are more likely to do things like grocery shopping, 去赴约, 诸如此类.

有什么让你吃惊的发现吗?

One surprise was that we didn’t see significant differences in how often people are with others based on their network size. So, someone who 说s they only have one close social tie in their network was just as likely to be with somebody during the day as someone who reported that they had five very close social ties. This really drives home that our social lives are dynamic and fluid, 并了解对健康的影响, 我们要看这些不同的层次和层次.

作为一个社会，我们能做些什么来促进和促进这些有益的社会联系吗?

There’s been a lot of attention lately to the broader social environment—so not just someone’s interpersonal connections, 而是他们生活的社会基础设施. 比如图书馆, 公园, 老年活动中心, 以及其他有利于支持社会关系形成和维持的社区空间. 事实上, 在我们的论文发表之后, we heard from Middlesex (Massachusetts) District Attorney Marian Ryan’s office. It was really interesting to hear about this program she’s doing throughout Middlesex County called the “Let’s Connect Initiative.” Part of the project is placing benches in certain areas, 我们的想法是，这些长椅可以促进几代人之间的对话和联系. 然后, 在荷兰, there’s apparently a grocery store chain with a checkout line for people who want to chitchat with the cashier for a little bit. Time will tell if these kinds of initiatives have lasting effects in our increasingly socially isolated and lonely society. 在杂货店与收银员聊天时，是否有人感到不那么孤独? 可能. 它能否建立持久的社会联系，成为社会支持的可靠来源? 我不确定. 但我们的电子游戏正规平台确实表明，这些短暂的事情对幸福感仍然很重要，即使它是短暂的, 短暂的交流. And when we think of health outcomes and premature mortality, our society typically focuses on things like changing someone’s physical activity or diet or prescribing a medication. I think social ties have been absent from that conversation. So it’s really exciting and important to start seeing more attention being seriously given to social connections.

You also have an NIH grant that’s looking at social connections and cognition.

It’s looking at interpersonal ties and close social networks but then also looking at the broader social environment. 建筑环境的各个方面, 社会基础设施, socioeconomic measures of neighborhoods and surrounding areas, and thinking about how those factors shape cognitive function, 认知能力下降, and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.

我们认为，社会孤立是一个因素?

是的，是这样的. But it’s not just the presence or absence of social ties. That is important—someone who’s socially isolated is at higher risk of 认知能力下降—but it’s also the question of what about the social networks that people do have can be protective against 认知能力下降?

And what have we learned about protecting ourselves against 认知能力下降? Have we identified any defenses in our social networks?

I think that’s the big question that’s hopefully going to come out of a lot of the research that’s being done in this area. 当某人65岁或75岁时, 会有某种干预吗, or is there something that can be done at that point to slow 认知能力下降?

And what about our social network’s ability to positively affect our physical health?

我们的社会关系可能是压力的来源, and it’s well established that stress can negatively affect health. But having supportive social ties can also buffer the effects of stress on health. 所以如果你在生活中有压力的经历, 一套真正支持的社会关系可能会抑制事件本来会造成的伤害. 我们还发现，社会关系在人们管理自己的健康和幸福方面非常重要, 比如吃药, 赴约, 并遵守规定的健康养生法.

如果一个人没有强大的社交网络?

被社会孤立的人, 或者谁独自生活, can be at much higher risk of not managing their health in those ways.

如果有人感到非常孤独?

孤独本身就是压力的来源. 感到孤独和被社会孤立会导致一些人从事有害的健康行为, 比如吸烟, 或者不参与促进健康的行为, 喜欢运动. 当孤独的人退出社会关系时，这些影响会加剧, and therefore does not receive support and resources that they otherwise might. 孤独和社会孤立也会激活身体的应激反应和相关的生物过程, 哪些与各种疾病过程有关, 并且可以表现在血压上, 免疫功能, and various markers for cardiovascular risk and other health risk factors. 因此，我们的社会关系通过各种途径对我们的健康产生重大影响, 包括生理, 心理, 和行为, 除了是重要的社会资源和影响的来源，共同塑造我们的福祉.