Understanding Loneliness

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Being a part of a community can provide a pathway for better health, life satisfaction, and happiness.

Access to the resources provided by community can boost resilience and make life’s challenges manageable.

People are lonely because they are disconnected from their communities and natural environments.

In contemporary cultural discourse, much attention has been given to the importance of community. Humans have a fundamental need for belonging and social connection. Research consistently indicates that strong satisfying social ties are key to better mental and physical health. Despite this, social bonds appear to be weakening, and loneliness, social isolation, and alienation are reaching unprecedented levels (Salari et al., 2025).

Loneliness is a painful human experience. Unfortunately, it is also a universal experience, as most people are lonely at some point in life. The current loneliness crisis is most evident among young adults, who are the loneliest age group. At the same time, older adults are more vulnerable to the long-term negative effects of chronic loneliness. In later life, individuals face an increased risk of loss, including the loss of friends, family, health, and mobility, conditions that increase loneliness and isolation. If loneliness persists and becomes chronic, it can lead to increased susceptibility to a range of health problems, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, dementia, anxiety, depression, and even premature death (Cacioppo, & Cacioppo, 2018; Courtin, & Knapp, 2017). Loneliness is closely linked to social isolation and alienation and occurs when meaningful and satisfying relationships and connections are lacking. We feel lonely and isolated when we feel disconnected from the people, communities, and environments in which we live (Berkman et al., 2017; Barreto, et al. 2021).

Having access to community support, feeling that one is connected to a community, a network of support, serves as an important buffer for preventing loneliness and isolation (McConatha et al. 2023). “Community” can be understood as a person’s network of support including friends, family, and access to social, emotional, and instrumental support including connections with natural environments as well as online spaces. Kahn and Antonucci (1980) proposed an early theory of social support that relates to the contemporary notion of........

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