De invloed van sociale mediagebruik op eenzaamheid onder ouderen. En de rol van sociaal demografische en sociaaleconomische factoren.

Abstract

Loneliness has become a bigger social problem in the Netherlands over the past decades. It has been argued that social media usage can reduce loneliness among the elderly. To investigate the influence of social contact via internet among the elderly on emotional loneliness, responses from 1595 participants of the LISS Panel were assessed. This study focused on the data received through an online survey in 2015. The results showed that emotional loneliness among the elderly is not directly influenced by the amount of social media they use. An interaction-effect appeared for the urban character of place of residence and the effect of social media usage on emotional loneliness. If respondents were using social media feelings of emotional loneliness were not determined by the urban character of place of residence. If they were not using social media, feelings of loneliness would increase for a moderately to extremely urban character of place of residence. The main effects of gender, education level and living together with a partner on emotional loneliness were found to be significant. Women were feeling lonelier than men. Older adults with lower levels of education were struggling more with loneliness than older adults with higher levels of education. People who were living without a partner reported more feelings of loneliness than people who were living together with a partner. These results indicate that an association between social media usage and emotional loneliness among elderly cannot automatically be assumed.