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Loneliness Conceptualization

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Lonely Children and Adolescents

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Abstract

Children’s loneliness is a major source of distress, and also a noteworthy developmental problem that can predispose them to immediate and long-term negative consequences. Currently, the importance of this harmful experience is emphasized, bearing in mind the almost unlimited interpersonal connectedness options that have recently been developing, through different paths and modes, such as social networking sites (i.e., Face book), Internet messages (i.e., e-mails) and cells’ oral and written communication (i.e., SMS), in addition to face-to-face contacts. Children and adolescents are especially eager to stay “connected” with their friends, along with many classmates, with peers that they know, as well as with “friends of friends” and with people that they meet only on the Internet. Private contents are shared, sometimes in the presence of total strangers (talking on the cells in the streets and buses, disclosing distress in blogs).

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  1. Constantiner School of Education, Tel Aviv University, 69978, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Malka Margalit

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Margalit, M. (2010). Loneliness Conceptualization. In: Lonely Children and Adolescents. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6284-3_1

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