We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Worry about debt is related to social loneliness in older adults in the Netherlands.
- Authors
Loibl, Cäzilia; Drost, Madeleine A.; Huisman, Martijn; Suanet, Bianca; Bruine de Bruin, Wändi; McNair, Simon; Summers, Barbara
- Abstract
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.
- Subjects
NETHERLANDS; STATISTICS; STATISTICAL significance; SOCIAL participation; INTERDISCIPLINARY research; DEBT; INDEPENDENT variables; SOCIAL networks; REGRESSION analysis; RISK assessment; CRONBACH'S alpha; T-test (Statistics); PEARSON correlation (Statistics); AFFECTIVE disorders; LONELINESS; FACTOR analysis; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; MENTAL depression; WORRY; STATISTICAL sampling; STATISTICAL correlation; DATA analysis software; LOGISTIC regression analysis; PATH analysis (Statistics); ANXIETY; SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC factors; LONGITUDINAL method; OLD age
- Publication
Ageing & Society, 2022, Vol 42, Issue 12, p2869
- ISSN
0144-686X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1017/S0144686X21000325