Affinity for Solitude among Late Adolescents and Emerging Adults

• In Event: Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Topic - Social Relationships

Abstract

Affinity for solitude (AFS; defined as an enjoyment of solitude, but not necessarily a preference for spending time alone over being with others) is thought to increase across development (Larson, 1990; Danneel et al., 2018). Using latent class analysis, a recent study by Daly and Willoughby (2020) found four distinct groups of individuals who varied in AFS and social anxiety (SA, to control for anxiety motivations for solitude) in both late childhood and early adolescence samples: AFS group (highAFS/lowmodSA), Low group (lowAFS/lowSA), as well as two socially anxious groups that varied on AFS. Overall, the authors found that AFS became more prevalent in early adolescence, although in all cases the Low group was the largest (Ns = 45% to 56% of the samples). In spite of concern that early adolescents in particular might exhibit negative adjustment if they have less opportunity for peer interaction, the early adolescents in the AFS group were generally as well-adjusted as the Low group. The purpose of the present study is to extend these findings by investigating three research questions: 1) Are there distinct groups of late adolescents and emerging adults who vary in AFS and SA? 2) Is the prevalence of an AFS group higher in late adolescence and emerging adulthood than that found with the early adolescents in Daly and Willoughby (2020)? 3) What psychosocial adjustment indicators (i.e., friendship quality, self-esteem, stress, etc. - see Table 1), measured one year earlier, predict membership in these groups? Participants came from two different samples consisting of late adolescents (n = 739, MAge = 16 years; 52% female) and emerging adults (n = 600, MAge = 25 years; 77% female). Using the same latent class method as Daly and Willoughby (2020), the same pattern of four distinct groups were identified in both samples based on item-level scores on the AFS and SA measures: AFS group (highAFS/lowSA), Low group (lowAFS/lowmodSA), and two socially anxious groups that varied on whether levels of AFS and SA were moderate or moderate/high – see Figure 1. Consistent with our hypothesis, the prevalence of an AFS group was high in late adolescence and emerging adulthood, so much so that the AFS group became normative (Ns = 44% in both samples, in comparison to 27% of the early adolescents in Daly & Willoughby, 2020). Results of multinominal regressions, conducted separately for each sample, indicated that there were no adjustment differences between the AFS and Low groups, with the exception that friendship quality predicted being in the AFS group versus the Low group for emerging adults – see Table 1. Higher friendship quality and self-esteem predicted being in the AFS groups versus the two socially anxious groups, and lower stress predicted being in the AFS and Low groups versus the two socially anxious groups. Overall, AFS is normative starting already in late adolescence. Negative adjustment seems to be linked to social anxiety more than to AFS, indicating that it is important to account for social anxiety when studying AFS so that we don’t pathologize AFS.

Authors

• Meghan E. Borg, Brock University
  Presenting Author

• Teena Willoughby, Brock University
  Non-Presenting Author