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Cited by 145Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional DevelopmentAnxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive ProcessesMental Health Research Topics

Internalizing Problems in Adolescence: Linking Loneliness, Social Anxiety Symptoms, and Depressive Symptoms Over Time

Open access
Danneel, Sofie, Nelemans, Stefanie, Spithoven, Annette, Bastin, Margot, Bijttebier, Patricia, Colpin, Hilde, Van Den Noortgate, Wim, Van Leeuwen, Karla +2 more·2019·Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology
DOI 10.1007/s10802-019-00539-0
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Abstract

Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to experiencing loneliness, social anxiety symptoms, and depressive symptoms. These internalizing problems often co-occur but, until now, it remains unclear how they are associated over time. Insight in these temporal sequences is important to enhance our understanding of how internalizing problems arise and may reinforce each other over time. To examine these temporal sequences, three samples of adolescents were used: Sample 1 consisted of 1,116 adolescents (48.97% girls, M age = 13.59), Sample 2 of 1,423 adolescents (52.42% girls, M age = 13.79), and Sample 3 of 549 adolescents (62.66% girls, M age = 14.82). Adolescents filled out well-established self-report measures of loneliness, social anxiety symptoms, and depressive symptoms during regular school hours at three measurement occasions with a 1-year interval. Meta-analytic techniques were used to estimate the average true effects across three-variable autoregressive cross-lagged models in the three samples. In addition, indirect effects and gender differences in the temporal associations were explored in all three samples. The results suggest that social anxiety symptoms play a crucial role as potential antecedent of emerging feelings of loneliness and depression in adolescence. In addition, in line with theoretical expectations, our results suggest the presence of a vicious cycle between adolescents' feelings of loneliness and social anxiety symptoms. The indirect effects were inconsistent across samples and no gender differences were found. These findings shed more light on the unique temporal relationships among different internalizing problems. Clinical interventions should target social anxiety symptoms to prevent feelings of loneliness and vice versa.

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Crossref · 10.1007/s10802-019-00539-0

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  • The developmental period of adolescence to young adulthood (ages 12-25) is marked by rapid biological, psychological, and social changes, making young people especially sensitive to environmental influences and stress.

    “The developmental period of adolescence to young adulthood (ages 12–25) (Jaworska & MacQueen, 2015) is marked by rapid biological, psychological, and social changes, making young people especially sensitive to environmental influences and stress (e.g., depression, anxiety, loneliness) (Danneel et al., 2019).”

    From Telomere trajectories from early adolescence to adulthood following early institutionalization: Protective effects of foster care in the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (2026) · cites this paper as Danneel et al., 2019

    The Abstract (page not given) says adolescents are particularly vulnerable to loneliness, social anxiety symptoms, and depressive symptoms, supporting the examples attached to the Danneel et al. citation. It does not say that rapid biological, psychological, and social changes make young people more sensitive to environmental influences or stress. The ages 12–25 are attached to a different citation in the citing sentence. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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  • Lonely people may be particularly susceptible to disengaging from treatment early.

    “Given that loneliness is a significant and independent risk factor for complex psychopathology, including depression and suicidal ideation [8,9,11,12,34-36], lonely people may be particularly susceptible to disengaging from treatment early.”

    From The Effectiveness of a Smartphone Intervention Targeting Suicidal Ideation in Young Adults: Randomized Controlled Trial Examining the Influence of Loneliness (2023) · cites this paper as [8]

    The paper’s Indirect effects section reports a small association from adolescent loneliness to later depressive symptoms through social anxiety in one sample. But Depressive Symptoms and Loneliness says loneliness did not independently predict depressive symptoms one year later, and the paper does not establish suicidal ideation as an outcome. The treatment-disengagement statement follows the citations and is the citing authors’ inference, not a finding attributed to this source. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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  • Loneliness is associated with more complex psychopathology, including depression and suicidal ideation.

    “These results are consistent with the existing literature examining the relationship between loneliness and mental health to the extent that they suggest that loneliness is associated with more complex psychopathology [8,9,11,12,34-36].”

    From The Effectiveness of a Smartphone Intervention Targeting Suicidal Ideation in Young Adults: Randomized Controlled Trial Examining the Influence of Loneliness (2023) · cites this paper as [8]

    The paper’s sections on prospective associations and on depressive symptoms and loneliness discuss links between loneliness, depressive symptoms, and social anxiety symptoms in adolescents, supporting the broad mental-health association. They do not report an association between loneliness and suicidal ideation; that pairing appears only in a cited work’s title in the References. The paper also cautions that loneliness did not directly predict depressive symptoms one year later in its own study. (LLM, conf=0.84)

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  • One large study of adolescents (n = 3,088) found that loneliness was not associated with depression 1 year later.

    “One large study of adolescents (n = 3,088) found that loneliness was not associated with depression 1 year later.63”

    From Rapid Systematic Review: The Impact of Social Isolation and Loneliness on the Mental Health of Children and Adolescents in the Context of COVID-19 (2020) · cites this paper as [63]

  • Three of four studies examining the longitudinal effect of loneliness on anxiety found that loneliness was associated with later anxiety.

    “Three of the four studies that examined the longitudinal effect of loneliness on anxiety found that loneliness was associated with later anxiety.63 , 71 , 78”

    From Rapid Systematic Review: The Impact of Social Isolation and Loneliness on the Mental Health of Children and Adolescents in the Context of COVID-19 (2020) · cites this paper as [63]

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Cites

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Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. Goossens, L. (Ed.) (2016). Leuvense Eenzaamheidsschaal voor Kinderen en Adolescenten: Handleiding [Loneliness and Aloneness Scale for Children and Adolescents: Manual]. Leuven, Belgium: Acco.
  2. Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (1998-2012). Mplus user's guide (7th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Muthén & Muthén.

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Authors
Danneel, S., Nelemans, S., Spithoven, A., Bastin, M., Bijttebier, P., Colpin, H., Van Den Noortgate, W., Van Leeuwen, K., Verschueren, K., & Goossens, L.
Affiliations
  • KU Leuven (BE)
  • Utrecht University (NL)
Corresponding author
Danneel, Sofie
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2019-04-01
Volume
47
Issue
10
Pages
1691-1705
ISSN
  • 0091-0627 (ISSN-L)
  • 1573-2835
DOI
10.1007/s10802-019-00539-0
OpenAlex
W2933856649
Cited by
145
References
88
Citations by year
2026: 19 · 2025: 26 · 2024: 29 · 2023: 31 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 4
FWCI
11.67
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Lirias (KU Leuven) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Utrecht University Repository (Utrecht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Utrecht University Repository (Utrecht University) (submittedVersion)
Funders
Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (G.0565.15N)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Mental Health Research Topics
Keywords
loneliness, social anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, internalizing problems, adolescents, temporal association, vicious circle, gender differences
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Anxiety, Depression, Female, Humans, Loneliness, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Sex Factors

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