How Loneliness Affects Mental Health in Young Adults - Deeply Research IJD

Research shows that loneliness is common among young adults. For instance, a study of young people aged 18–25 found that about 35% reported feeling lonely three or more days in a week.
This high prevalence matters because young adulthood often involves major life transitions (e.g., moving away from family, starting work or university), which can disrupt social support networks.

1. Association with Depression
Loneliness is strongly linked to depression in young adults. A longitudinal study during the COVID-19 pandemic found that increases in loneliness were associated with increased depressive symptoms.
More broadly, a large-scale study indicated that people who “always” feel lonely have a much higher probability of depression than those who never feel lonely.

2. Association with Anxiety / Social Anxiety
Loneliness is also connected with anxiety disorders among young adults. In a large Dutch cohort during COVID-19, high loneliness scores were strongly associated with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD.
There’s a more specific link between loneliness and social anxiety: one study found that the relationship between loneliness and social anxiety is mediated by emotion dysregulation and by depression.
In other words: lonely young adults may struggle to regulate their emotions, and that contributes both to depression and to social anxiety.

3. Mechanisms / Mediators of the Impact
Emotion dysregulation: As mentioned, difficulties managing emotions (especially negative ones) explain part of how loneliness leads to social anxiety and other mental health issues.
Problematic Internet Use (PIU): Among college students, loneliness predicts higher PIU, which in turn contributes to depression.
Perceived Social Support: The negative effect of PIU on depression is moderated by how much social support students feel they have. Those with higher perceived social support experience a weaker link between PIU and depression.

4. Psychological Vulnerability Factors
Pre-existing mental health symptoms matter. In a longitudinal study of college students (before and during COVID-19 lockdown), those who already had higher depressive symptoms (and alexithymic traits) were more likely to feel lonely over time.
Alexithymia (difficulty identifying / describing feelings) is interesting it suggests that people who struggle to understand their own emotions are more vulnerable to loneliness, which then affects mental health.

5. Severity of Mental Health Outcomes
The risks associated with loneliness aren’t small. In one large population study, people who “always” felt lonely had about 5 times the risk of depression and many more “poor mental health days” per month compared to those who never felt lonely.
For anxiety, in the Lifelines COVID-19 study, individuals with the highest loneliness scores were ~11 times more likely to have generalized anxiety disorder, and ~14 times more likely to have major depressive disorder (MDD) compared to those with the lowest loneliness scores.

6. Life Transitions and Social Context
Factors such as moving away from home, starting university, or entering the workforce can make young adults more susceptible to loneliness because these transitions force them to rebuild social networks
Additionally, loneliness is not always just a social-circumstance issue: even when lonely people try to connect, they may perceive social interactions as stressful, or interpret others’ behavior negatively (e.g., thinking others don’t like them or will reject them).

7. Implications for Interventions
ecause loneliness contributes to depression (directly and indirectly), interventions aimed at reducing loneliness could help prevent or reduce depressive symptoms among young adults.
Strengthening social support systems (mentorship, peer networks) might buffer some of the negative effects of loneliness, particularly by reducing reliance on maladaptive coping like PIU.
Emotion regulation training could also be valuable, since emotion dysregulation mediates the impact of loneliness on social anxiety and depression.

8. Long-Term & Public Health Concern
Given the prevalence and strong associations with mental illness, loneliness among young adults is not just an individual problem it’s a public health issue.
Especially in times of societal disruption (e.g., during pandemics), loneliness can rise sharply and contribute significantly to burden on mental health.

References
Andersen, A. S., Grønbæk, M. K., Aaby, L., & Lund, R. (2021). Associations of loneliness and social isolation with physical and mental health among adolescents and young adults. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 56, 1857–1865.
Biederman, L., Bajaj, S., & Reeb, J. (2025). The impact of loneliness on depression among college students: The mediating role of problematic internet use and the moderating role of perceived social support. BMC Public Health, 25, 2534.
Cacioppo, J. T., et al. (2023). Loneliness and social anxiety in young adults: The moderating and mediating roles of emotion dysregulation, depression and social isolation risk. British Journal of Psychology, (advance online publication). https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12774
Killgore, W. D., Cloonan, S. A., Taylor, E. C., & Dailey, N. S. (2020). Increases in loneliness among young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic and association with increases in mental health problems. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 136, 119–125.



Psychoresearcher : Jean de Dieu IRAFASHA