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A Meta-Analysis of Interventions to Reduce Loneliness:

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TLDR
An integrative meta-analysis of loneliness reduction interventions was conducted to quantify the effects of each strategy and to examine the potential role of moderator variables, and revealed that single-group pre-post and nonrandomized comparison studies yielded larger mean effect sizes relative to randomized comparison studies.
Abstract
Social and demographic trends are placing an increasing number of adults at risk for loneliness, an established risk factor for physical and mental illness. The growing costs of loneliness have led to a number of loneliness reduction interventions. Qualitative reviews have identified four primary intervention strategies: (a) improving social skills, (b) enhancing social support, (c) increasing opportunities for social contact, and (d) addressing maladaptive social cognition. An integrative meta-analysis of loneliness reduction interventions was conducted to quantify the effects of each strategy and to examine the potential role of moderator variables. Results revealed that single-group pre-post and nonrandomized comparison studies yielded larger mean effect sizes relative to randomized comparison studies. Among studies that used the latter design, the most successful interventions addressed maladaptive social cognition. This is consistent with current theories regarding loneliness and its etiology. Theoretical and methodological issues associated with designing new loneliness reduction interventions are discussed.

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Journal ArticleDOI

Loneliness: Clinical Import and Interventions

TL;DR: Assessments of loneliness are reviewed and there is increasing evidence for the potential efficacy of integrated interventions that combine (social) cognitive behavioral therapy with short-term adjunctive pharmacological treatments.
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Associations between loneliness and perceived social support and outcomes of mental health problems: a systematic review

TL;DR: Loneliness and quality of social support in depression are potential targets for development and testing of interventions, while for other conditions further evidence is needed regarding relationships with outcomes.
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Interventions targeting social isolation in older people: a systematic review.

TL;DR: Assessment of the effectiveness of interventions designed to alleviate social isolation and loneliness in older people found common characteristics of effective interventions were those developed within the context of a theoretical basis, and those offering social activity and/or support within a group format.
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Effects of stress on the development and progression of cardiovascular disease

TL;DR: In real-life settings, mechanistic studies have corroborated earlier laboratory-based observations on stress-related pathophysiological changes that underlie triggering, such as lowered arrhythmic threshold and increased sympathetic activation with related increases in blood pressure, as well as pro-inflammatory and procoagulant responses.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

Combating loneliness: a friendship enrichment programme for older women

TL;DR: In this article, an educational program on friendship enrichment for older women has been developed and implemented in the Netherlands, which helps women clarify their needs in friendship, analyse their current social network, set goals in friendship and develop strategies to achieve goals.
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Some normative, reliability, and factor analytic data for the revised UCLA loneliness scale

TL;DR: Normative statistics are provided for the UCLA Loneliness Scale based on the results of a sample of 978 adult subjects collected during a general population health survey, confirming previous findings that the scale is highly reliable.
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Promoting positive affect and diminishing loneliness of widowed seniors through a support intervention.

TL;DR: In postintervention semistructured interviews, bereaved seniors reported increased hope, improved skills in developing social relationships, enhanced coping, new role identities, and less loneliness.
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The Influence of Shyness on Loneliness in a New Situation

TL;DR: This article found that both social situations (such as the novel circumstances of a new semester) and personality dispositions contribute to the amount of loneliness that an individual may experience, and that shy students had significantly higher loneliness scores than unshy students at time 1.
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Response-acquisition and cognitive self-statement modification approaches to dating-skills training.

TL;DR: In this article, three training programs for shy males were designed using an empirically derived domain of problem situations from shy males and response alternatives from a "competent" population.
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