The DOI matches its Crossref record; 39 of the 47 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The relationships between social support and loneliness: A meta-analysis and review
Open accessAbstract
The loneliness of modern people is becoming more and more prominent, and has brought profoundly negative effects on mental health. Social support is an important predictor of loneliness. However, the size of the correlation reported by studies on the relation between social support and loneliness varies greatly. The aim of this meta-analysis is to determine the relation between social support and loneliness. One hundred and seventy-seven articles (N = 113,427) were identified, and robust variance estimation with random effects were used. As expected, higher levels of social support were negatively correlated with loneliness (r = -0.39). The association between social support and loneliness were also moderated by several variables. Specifically, the negative relationship between loneliness and social support among rural populations is stronger than that of urban populations in Chinese samples, the effect of perceived social support (r = -0.45) on loneliness is greater than that of other social supports (r = -0.36), and the friend support (r = -0.48) played a more important role in reducing loneliness than that of two other supports (family support: r = -0.34; significant other support: r = -0.40). The current results support robust links between social support and loneliness, emphasizing the important role of social support in reducing levels of loneliness, this may have some implications for future research and loneliness treatments.
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“Loneliness and social support have an inverse relationship: people who feel socially supported are less subject to loneliness (Matthews et al., 2016; Teo et al., 2013; Zhang and Dong, 2022).”
From Social connections combat loneliness and promote wellbeing among college students coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic (2025) · cites this paper as Zhang and Dong, 2022
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Cites
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Items 201–216 of 216
Chao, H., Chang, C.-J., Lai, T.-J., Tsai, J.-S., Cheng, S.-Y., & Peng, J.-K. (2025) · Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease · doi:10.1016/j.tmaid.2025.102928
Zong, X., & Gan, J. (2025) · BMC Geriatrics · doi:10.1186/s12877-025-06325-6 · Cited by 1
“Research consistently shows that people with stronger social support systems tend to report lower levels of loneliness [29–31].”
Oba, H., & Sato, S. (2025) · Psychogeriatrics · doi:10.1111/psyg.70103
“A meta-analysis showed that higher levels of social support contribute to reduced loneliness [18].”
Hu, A., & Xiao, Y. (2025) · Applied Research in Quality of Life · doi:10.1007/s11482-025-10506-1
“This support, particularly in the form of practical help, can enhance one’s sense of security and thus reduce loneliness (Zhang and Dong 2022).”
ADOLESCENT LONELINESS IN ORPHANAGES: ROLES OF SELF-COMPASSION AND SOCIAL SUPPORT
Apriyeni, E., Patricia, H., & Rahayuningrum, D. C. (2025) · Menara Medika · doi:10.31869/mm.v8i1.6939
“In general, loneliness is defined as a state of inner unrest that may be experienced when there is a gap between the currently felt interpersonal relationships and the relationships that are expected to occur (Zhang and Dong, 2022).”
Sovianti, V., Dwidiyanti, M., & Ismail, S. (2025) · JKG (Jurnal Keperawatan Global) · doi:10.37341/jkg.v10i1.724
“The concept of relationship quality, including expressed emotions, and some conceptualizations of social capital also consider interpersonal relationships (such as (Zhang & Dong, 2022;Taylor et al., 2023).”
Demir, Z. G. (2025) · Journal of Health Sciences and Medicine · doi:10.32322/jhsm.1634823
Kim, E., Cutrona, C. E., & Russell, D. W. (2025) · The Journal of Positive Psychology · doi:10.1080/17439760.2025.2500565
“Considering the strong influence of perceived social support on loneliness (Russell, 1996; Zhang & Dong, 2022), we incorporated measures of perceived positive and negative social support as control variables in our analyses.”
Joksimovic, N., Vallières, F., & Hyland, P. (2025) · Journal of Affective Disorders Reports · doi:10.1016/j.jadr.2025.100915 · Cited by 1
Pamias-Lopez, D., & Keck, T. (2025) · Journal of Ageing and Longevity · doi:10.3390/jal5010005 · Cited by 1
“These life transitions make older people more susceptible to reduced and less diverse social networks [86], meaning it is essential to promote and support social relationships to limit isolation and prevent loneliness [87].”
Hignell, B., Geeraert, N., & Easterbrook, M. J. (2024) · International Journal of Intercultural Relations · doi:10.1016/j.ijintrel.2024.102095 · Cited by 1
Petak, A. (2024) · Primenjena psihologija · doi:10.19090/pp.v17i4.2527 · Cited by 1
“Socijalna podrška značajno smanjuje razine usmaljenosti (Zhang & Dong, 2022), ali i drugih problema mentalnog zdravlja (Harandi et al., 2017).”
Fabijanić, S., Batinić, L., & Vrselja, I. (2024) · Psihologijske teme · doi:10.31820/pt.33.1.8
“Based on previous research on the relationship between offline social support and loneliness (see Zhang & Dong, 2022), the first hypothesis of this study is that higher levels of offline social support (appraisal, tangible, self-esteem, and belonging support) are associated with lower levels of…”
BackgroundResultGenerative AI as a social partner for young adults: Dual pathways to resilience and AI dependence
Shin, Y., Jeong, D., Kang, H. C., & Lee, S. W. (2026) · International Journal of Information Management · doi:10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2026.103141
Sung, P., Chan, A. W.-M., Visaria, A., & Lee, J. M.-L. (2025) · Social Networks · doi:10.1016/j.socnet.2025.12.005
Research Progress of the Association between Loneliness and Sleep Quality
刘, 悦. (2025) · Advances in Clinical Medicine · doi:10.12677/acm.2025.153653
Metadata
- Authors
- Zhang, X., & Dong, S.
- Affiliations
- Jiangxi Normal University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Zhang, Xing
- Venue
- Acta Psychologica
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2022-07
- Volume
- 227
- Pages
- 103616
- ISSN
- 0001-6918 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4280498737
- Cited by
- 222
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2026: 75 · 2025: 82 · 2024: 44 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 2
- FWCI
- 5.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Acta Psychologica (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Jiangxi Normal University Yaohu Campus (JD20061)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Health and Well-being Studies
- Keywords
- social support, loneliness, perceived social support, friend support, family support, significant other support, urban-rural differences, Chinese adults, mental health
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Loneliness, Social Support, Asian People
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