PERSONAL AND SOCIAL INFLUENCES ON LONELINESS - THE MEDIATING EFFECT OF SOCIAL PROVISIONS

Building on several recent investigations, we propose a theoretical model in which the effects on loneliness of an individual's personality characteristics and features of his or her social network are mediated by the availability of specific social provisions. More than 500 college students completed questionnaires assessing personality variables, social network characteristics, structural features of the social environment, and three kinds of loneliness (global, social, and emotional). In keeping with the model, personality and social network features were related significantly and substantially to the availability of social provisions; provisions, in turn, were associated substantially with all three kinds of loneliness. Moreover, the direct effects of personality and network features on loneliness were explained largely by social provisions. In most cases, controlling statistically for provisions reduced the size of these direct effects by at least 75 to 85 percent. We discuss the implications of these results, psychometric problems in the social provision measures, and future directions for research.