Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute

Loneliness is an indicator of social well-being and pertains to the feeling of missing an intimate relationship (emotional loneliness) or missing a wider social network (social loneliness). The 11-item De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale has proved to be a valid and reliable measurement instrument for overall, emotional, and social loneliness, although its length has sometimes rendered it difficult to use in large surveys. In this study, the authors empirically tested a shortened version of the scale on data from two surveys ( N = 9,448). Confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the specification of two latent factors. Congruent validity and the relationship with determinants (partner status, health) proved to be optimal. The 6-item De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale is a reliable and valid measurement instrument for overall, emotional, and social loneliness that is suitable for large surveys.

Loneliness concerns the subjective evaluation of the situation individuals are involved in, characterized either by a number of relationships with friends and colleagues which is smaller than is considered desirable (social loneliness), as well as situations where the intimacy in confidant relationships one wishes for has not been realized (emotional loneliness). To identify people who are lonely direct questions are not sufficient; loneliness scales are preferred. In this article, the quality of the three-item scale for emotional loneliness and the three-item scale for social loneliness has been investigated for use in the following countries participating in the United Nations "Generations and Gender Surveys": France, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Bulgaria, Georgia, and Japan. Sample sizes for the 7 countries varied between 8,158 and 12,828. Translations of the De Jong Gierveld loneliness scale have been tested using reliability and validity tests including a confirmatory factor analysis to test the two-dimensional structure of loneliness. Test outcomes indicated for each of the countries under investigation reliable and valid scales for emotional and social loneliness, respectively.

Loneliness is nowadays considered to be one of the main problems in society. The negative
\\nexperience of a discrepancy between the desired and the achieved personal network of
\\nrelationships is common and affects both younger and older adults. This chapter first
\\naddresses well-established aspects and new developments in the main concepts of loneliness
\\nand social isolation, the measuring instruments and the prevalence of loneliness. The chapter
\\ncontinues by an overview of theoretical ideas regarding loneliness, focusing on individuallevel
\\nand societal predisposing characteristics as well as on genetic/evolutionary perspectives
\\non the onset and continuation of loneliness. The main part of the chapter is dedicated to
\\nempirical evidence from many sources and disciplines including psychology, sociology and
\\nepidemiological sciences. The prevention of loneliness, coping and interventions are
\\naddressed in the final part of the chapter. Other chapters in this volume address topics related
\\nto loneliness, namely social rejection, the neuroscience of social disconnection, social
\\nnetworks, and relationships and health (see Leary & Acosta, this volume; Cacioppo, this
\\nvolume; Felmlee & Sinclair, this volume; and Holt-Lunstad, this volume).

The focus in this paper is on the social domain of quality of life, and more particularly loneliness. The empirical literature on older adult loneliness is reviewed, thereby challenging three often-held assumptions that figure prominently in public debates on loneliness. The first assumption that loneliness is a problem specifically for older people finds only partial support. Loneliness is common only among the very old. The second assumption is that people in individualistic societies are most lonely. Contrary to this belief, findings show that older adults in northern European countries tend to be less lonely than those in the more familialistic southern European countries. The scarce data on Central and Eastern Europe suggest a high prevalence of older adult loneliness in those countries. The third assumption that loneliness has increased over the past decades finds no support. Loneliness levels have decreased, albeit slightly. The review notes the persistence of ageist attitudes, and underscores the importance of considering people's frame of reference and normative orientation in analyses of loneliness.

The well-being of older adults in general, and their loneliness in particular, are important themes in recent discussions in the Western world. The social integration and participation of older adults in society are seen as indicators of productive aging, and the alleviation of loneliness forms part of policies aimed at achieving the goal of ‘successful’ aging. Discussions about loneliness date back to ancient times, when they were led by philosophers. They wrote primarily about ‘positive’ loneliness. This positive type of loneliness - as indicated in the concept of ‘Einsamkeit’ used in German literature until 1945 - is perceived to be related to the voluntary withdrawal from the daily hassles of life and oriented towards higher goals, such as reflection, meditation and communication with God.

In this article, we review both theoretical and empirical advancements in retirement adjustment research. After reviewing and integrating current theories about retirement adjustment, we propose a resource-based dynamic perspective to apply to the understanding of retirement adjustment. We then review empirical findings that are associated with the key research questions in this literature: (a) What is the general impact of retirement on the individual? and (b) What are the factors that influence retirement adjustment quality? We also highlight important future research directions that may be fruitful for psychologists to pursue in this area.

We introduce a number of new methods based on sequence analysis to test hypotheses on the de-standardization of family-life trajectories in early adulthood, using Fertility and Family Survey data on 19 countries. Across cohorts, family-life trajectories of young adults have not become more turbulent. However, in most countries family-life trajectories of young adults have become less similar to one another and the variation in the types of family-trajectories has increased. Contrary to expectations, no clear differences in de-standardization were observed between countries characterized by a social-democratic welfare-state regime and countries characterized by either liberal or conservative welfare-state regimes.

This study examines loneliness and its correlates—health, residential care, partner status, and network size—over a seven-year period among adults born between 1908 and 1937. The four waves of data are from the Dutch “Living Arrangements and Social Networks of Older Adults” and the “Longitudinal Aging Study of Amsterdam”programs. Data from at least two waves are available for 2,925 respondents. Results show that older adults generally become lonelier as time passes. The increase is greater for the oldest, the partnered, and those with a better functional capacity at baseline. Older adults who lose their partner by death show the greatest increase in loneliness. Not all older adults become more lonely: Improvement in functional capacity and network expansion lead to less loneliness. Entry into residential care does not affect loneliness. The longitudinal design provides new insights into factors that protect against loneliness compared to cross-sectional studies.

Multiactor panel data on 778 Dutch employees were used to examine adjustment to and satisfaction with retirement. Regression analyses revealed that adjustment and satisfaction are related, but not identical. Adjustment problems arise from preretirement anxiety about the social consequences of retirement and from a lack of control over the decision. Retirement satisfaction is primarily related to the individual's access to key resources: finances, health, and the marital relationship. The study shows that the retirement transition is multidimensional. The transition involves two developmental challenges: adjustment to the loss of the work role and the social ties of work, and the development of a satisfactory postretirement lifestyle. Making a distinction between these two aspects of the retirement experience is important for a better understanding of the psychological process following retirement.

Loneliness concerns the subjective evaluation that the number of relationships is smaller than the individual considers desirable or that the intimacy that the individual wishes for has not been realized. The aim of this study was to assess variations in levels of late-life loneliness and its determinants across Europe. Data came from the SHARE surveys, Wave 2 (Borsch-Supan et al., 2008), encompassing adults aged 50 years and over in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland (N = 12,248). Loneliness was measured by a single item derived from the CES-D (depression) scale. Using logistic models, the present authors tested several types of explanations for country differences: differences in demographic characteristics, wealth and health, and social networks. Older adults in the southern and central European countries were generally lonelier than their peers in the northern and western European countries. In the southern and central European countries, loneliness was largely attributable to not being married, economic deprivation, and poor health. Frequent contacts with parents and adult children, social participation, and providing support to family members were important in preventing and alleviating loneliness in almost all countries. To combat loneliness among older adults, the findings suggest both (a) generic approaches aimed at improving social embeddedness and (b) country-tailored approaches aimed at improving health and wealth.

How does publication pressure in modern‐day universities affect the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards in science? By using a worldwide survey among demographers in developed and developing countries, the authors show that the large majority perceive the publication pressure as high, but more so in Anglo‐Saxon countries and to a lesser extent in Western Europe. However, scholars see both the pros (upward mobility) and cons (excessive publication and uncitedness, neglect of policy issues, etc.) of the so‐called publish‐or‐perish culture. By measuring behavior in terms of reading and publishing, and perceived extrinsic rewards and stated intrinsic rewards of practicing science, it turns out that publication pressure negatively affects the orientation of demographers towards policy and knowledge sharing. There are no signs that the pressure affects reading and publishing outside the core discipline.

What determines the perceived productivity of the older worker and how does this perception compare to the perception of the productivity of the younger worker? In this study we present evidence based on data from Dutch employers and employees. Productivity perceptions are affected by one's age and one's position in the hierarchy. The young favor the young, the old favor the old, and employers value the productivity of workers less than employees do. However, there are also remarkable similarities across employers and employees. By distinguishing the various dimensions that underlie the productivity of younger and older workers, we tested whether soft qualities and abilities-e.g., reliability and commitment-are just as important as hard qualities-cognitive and physically based skills-in the eyes of both employers and employees. It appears that both employers and employees, young and old, view hard skills as far more important than soft skills.

Data from the 1998 survey “Divorce in the Netherlands” (N = 2,223) are used to analyze differences in loneliness among divorced and married men and women. The results indicate that it makes sense to distinguish social from emotional loneliness. This is consistent with the deficit perspective, which posits that the absence of specific types of relationships is associated with specific forms of loneliness. Whereas social loneliness is largely attributable to support network deficits, emotional loneliness is associated with the absence of a partner. In line with the cognitive perspective, the results show that greater insight into loneliness is obtained when discrepancies in relationships are considered. Divorcees who attach great importance to having a partner and people whose marriages are conflict ridden tend to have the highest levels of emotional loneliness. Our study shows that to explain loneliness, one should take not only characteristics of people’s relationships into consideration, but also their relationship preferences. The investment hypothesis, which also follows from the cognitive perspective, is not supported by the data. There is no indication that those who attach greater importance to having a partner invest less in relationships with friends, relatives, and colleagues and therefore showhigh levels of social loneliness. Consistent gender differences are observed:Men, regardless of partner status, tend to attach greater importance to having a partner than do women, and they tend to have smaller support networks and higher levels of social loneliness. Among the divorced, men are more apt to suffer from emotional loneliness than are women.

In this study, Weiss's (1973) theorizing about the sources of emotional and social loneliness is elaborated--with notions about the asymmetric gratifications derived from marriage, about the conflicting loyalties that result from remarriage, and about selection into marriage--in order to reach an understanding of gender differences in loneliness, both in and outside of marriage. First and subsequent marriages are considered, as well as marital disruptions and never marrying. The data (N = 3737) are from the 1992 Dutch survey on older adults' living arrangements and social networks (NESTOR-LSN). Marital-history differences emerge, not only for emotional loneliness, but also (and contrary to Weiss's theoretical conceptualizations) for social loneliness. The marital-history differences in emotional and social loneliness are greater among men than women. For men, the marriage bond appears not only to be more central to emotional well-being than is the case for women but also to play a pivotal role in their involvement with others. Marital history offers the best explanation for differences in emotional loneliness among men, but social embeddedness characteristics also account for differences in emotional loneliness among women. Apparently, whereas men are more likely to find an intimate attachment in marriage, women also find protection from emotional loneliness in other close ties. The marital-history differences in social loneliness are largely mediated by social embeddedness characteristics, partly in different ways for men and women. Involvement in activities outside the home serves as the context for sociability for men, whereas parenthood plays a more important role in women's social engagements.

While return migration is receiving increasing attention, there is still insufficient insight into the factors which determine migrants’ intentions and decisions to return. It is often assumed that integration in receiving countries and the concomitant

In this introductory chapter we describe the rationale for developing a research program on older adults' living arrangements and social networks.We provide arguments for the relevance and importance of work in this area, and provide indications of the kinds of insights we hope to obtain.The chapter ends with a brief overview of what to expect in the book.Throughout the world, a trend toward population aging is visible.Though the quantitative features of changing age structures are widely known and generally undisputed (a higher proportion at the 'older' ages, however defined), the social implications are as yet little known, and often subject to considerable debate and speculation (Day, 1992).Economic concerns have dominated studies on population aging.Attention has focused on the question of how society can financially support an aging population.The picture painted for the future is one of fewer shoulders to bear greater loads.Unfortunately, however, in focusing on the question of how society can financially support an aging population, the elderly are constituted as a cost factor, a burden on society (Warnes, 1993).That way, a biased perspective on the elderly is created and maintained, one which generally portrays the elderly as dependents.What is often neglected is that the elderly are not always on the receiving side (Arber & Ginn, 1990).For example, within families, substantial transfers take place from members of older to members of younger generations.Apart from providing financial support in the forms of donations, gifts and regular monetary contributions (Cheal, 1987;Aldous, 1987; de Regt, 1993), older parents are important sources of instrumental

With the growing possibilities for conducting web surveys, researchers increasingly use such surveys to recruit student samples for research purposes in a wide array of social science disciplines. Simultaneously, higher education students are recurrently asked to complete course and teacher evaluations online and to participate in small-scale research projects of fellow students, potentially leading to survey fatigue among student populations across the globe. One of the most frequently reported effects of over-surveying is a decrease in overall response rates. This situation has significant impacts on the generalizability and external validity of findings based on web surveys. The collection of reliable data is, nevertheless, crucial for researchers as well as educational practitioners and administrators, and strategies should be developed for achieving acceptable response rates. This paper reports on a methodological experiment (N = 15,651) conducted at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, in which possible strategies to improve survey response are explored. I specifically focus on the impact of an extra reminder as well as specific reminder contents on response rates. The results reveal that extra reminders are effective for increasing response rates, but not for diversifying the sample.

The Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) is one of the two pillars of the Generations and Gender Programme designed to improve understanding of demographic and social development and of the factors that influence these developments. This article describ

Cohabitors and married people who cohabited before marriage have higher risks of union dissolution than people who married without prior cohabitation. However, these differences in union stability vary markedly between countries. We hypothesize that the impact of cohabitation on union stability depends on how far cohabitation has diffused within a society. We test this hypothesis with data from 16 European countries. The results support our hypothesis: former cohabitors run a higher risk of union dissolution than people who married without prior cohabitation only in societies in which cohabitation is a small minority or a large majority phenomenon.

OBJECTIVES: We examine the extent of emotional and social loneliness among older people and how the evaluation of the functioning and quality of marriages plays a role. METHODS: Data on 755 respondents aged 64-92 are taken from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (Wave 2001-2002). Hierarchical negative binomial regression analysis is used. RESULTS: Between 1 in 4 and 5 older adults who are married exhibit moderate or strong emotional or social loneliness. Stronger emotional and social loneliness is observed in adults whose spouse has health problems, who do not often receive emotional support from the spouse, who have nonfrequent conversations or are in disagreement, or who evaluate their current sex life as not (very) pleasant or not applicable. Emotional loneliness is stronger among women in second marriages, whereas marked social loneliness is especially characteristic of older men with disabled spouses. Moreover, smaller social networks and less contact with children also increase emotional and social loneliness in later life. DISCUSSION: Differentiating marital quality and gender provides greater insight into emotional and social loneliness in married older people.