Rethinking Loneliness—A Qualitative Study about Adolescents’ Experiences of Being an Outsider in Peer Group

Riikka Korkiamäki

School of Management, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland.

DOI: 10.4236/ojd.2014.34016                

Abstract

Friends and peers are remarkably important to young people, and problems in peer relations are often causes of adolescents’ emotional stress. The purpose of this study was to investigate adolescents’ views about what it means to be excluded in peer group and how this kind of experience is linked to their emotional wellbeing. The study exploited qualitative methodology and the findings were based on adolescents’ personal accounts of identifying themselves as “outsiders”. The data were produced in dialogical interviews with 126 Finnish adolescents. As a result, four different types of being an outsider were identified. These were found to be closely attached to emotional stress and feeling of loneliness experienced by adolescents. The results imply that adolescents’ loneliness should not be looked at as a single category but it should rather be put into the context of young person’s own meaning-making, preferences of belonging, and personal biography. The study compliments earlier studies with qualitative insight and experiential accounts about adolescent’s self-perceived experiences of peer exclusion. These could be valuable in practices of psychology, psychiatry, social work and youth work, in seeking to understand adolescents’ lived worlds and their ways of interpreting peer interaction.

Keywords

Friendship, Loneliness, Peer Relations, Social Exclusion, Youth

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Andersen, S. L., &Teicher, M. H. (2008). Stress, Sensitive Periods and Maturational Events in Adolescent Depression. Trends in Neurosciences, 31, 183-191. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2008.01.004
[2]	Asher, S. R. & Coie, J. D. (1990). Peer Rejection in Childhood. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
[3]	Asher, S. R. & Paquette, J. A. (2003). Loneliness and Peer Relations in Childhood. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 12, 75-78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.01233
[4]	Benner, A. (2011). Latino Adolescents’ Loneliness, Academic Performance, and the Buffering Nature of Friendships. Journal of Youth & Adolescence, 40,556-567. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10964-010-9561-2
[5]	Brage, D. (1993) Correlates of Loneliness among Midwest Adolescents. Adolescence, 28, 685-694.
[6]	Byrne, D. G., Davenport, S. C., & Mazanov, J. (2007). Profiles of Adolescent Stress: The Development of the Adolescent Stress Questionnaire (ASQ). Journal of Adolescence, 30, 393-416. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2006.04.004
[7]	Costello, E. J., Mustillo, S., Erkanli, A., Keeler, G., & Angold, A. (2003). Prevalence and Development of Psychiatric Disorders in Childhood and Adolescence. Archives of General Psychiatry, 60, 837-844. http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.60.8.837
[8]	Cotterell, J. (2007) Social Networks in Youth and Adolescence (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.
[9]	Davidson, L. M., Demaray, M. K., Malecki, C. K., Ellonen, N., & Korkiamäki, R. (2008). United States and Finnish Adolescents’ Perceptions of Social Support: A Cross-Cultural Analysis. School Psychology International, 29, 363-375. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0143034308093675
[10]	Dumont, M., & Provost, M. A. (1999). Resilience in Adolescents: Protective Role of Social Support, Coping Strategies, Self-Esteem, and Social Activities on Experience of Stress and Depression. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 28, 343-363. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1021637011732
[11]	Dunn, J. (2004). Children’s Friendships. The Beginnigs of Intimacy. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
[12]	Eddles-Hirsch, K. (2012). Insiders or Outsiders: The Role of Social Context in the Peer Relations of Gifted Students. Roeper Review, 34, 53-62.http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02783193.2012.627554
[13]	Goodwin, M. H. (2006). The Hidden Life of Girls.Games of Stance, Status, and Exclusion. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9780470773567
[14]	Goodyer, I. M., Wright, C. & Altham, P. M. (1989). Recent Friendships in Anxious and Depressed School Age Children. Psychological Medicine, 19, 165-174. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0033291700011119
[15]	Goosby, B., Bellatorre, A., Walsemann, K., & Cheadle, J. (2013). Adolescent Loneliness and Health in Early Adulthood. Sociological Inquiry, 83, 505-536. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/soin.12018
[16]	Goswick, R. A., & Jones, W. H. (1982). Components of Loneliness during Adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 11, 373-383. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01540375
[17]	Green, L. R., Richardson, D., Lago, T., & Schatten-Jones, E. C. (2001). Network Correlates of Social and Emotional Loneliness in Young and Older Adults. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 281-288. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0146167201273002
[18]	Hankin, B. L. (2006). Adolescent Depression: Description, Causes, and Interventions. Epilepsy & Behavior, 8, 102-114. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2005.10.012
[19]	Hopkins, P. (2010). Young People, Place and Identity. London: Routledge.
[20]	Hymel, S., Wagner, E., & Butler, L. J. (1990). Reputational Bias: View from the Peer Group. In S. R. Asher, & J. D. Coie (Eds.), Peer Rejection in Childhood (pp. 156-186). New York: Cambridge University Press.
[21]	Jafari, F., Yousefi, Z., & Manshaee, G. R. (2014). Mothers Characters and Adolescence Depression. Open Journal of Depression, 3, 45-51. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojd.2014.32010
[22]	Junttila, N. (2010). Social Competence and Loneliness during the School Years. Issues in Assessment, Interrelations and Intergeneral Transmission. Ph.D. Thesis, Turku: University of Turku.
[23]	Kallio, K. P. (2014). Rethinking Spatial Socialization as a Dynamic and Relational Process of Political Becoming. Global Studies of Childhood, 4, 19.
[24]	Korkiamäki, R. (2013). Kaveria ei jätetä! Sosiaalinen pääoma nuorten vertaissuhteissa (No Friend Left Behind! Social Capital and Young People’s Peer Realations). Tampere: Tampere University Press & Finnish Youth Research Society.
[25]	Korkiamäki, R., & Ellonen, N. (2010). Ikätoverisuhteet sosiaalisina resursseina yläkouluiässä (Peer Relations as Social Resource among Teenagers). Nuorisotutkimus (Youth Research), 8, 18-35.
[26]	Korkiamäki, R., & Kallio, K. P. (2014). Yst?vyys tilallisen kiinnittymisen suuntaajana: Tilateoreettisia tulkintoja lasten ja nuorten ystävyyksistä (The Role of Friendship in the Formation of Spatial Attachments: Spatial Theoretical Approach to Children’s and Young People’s Friendships). Aluejaympäristö (Space and Environment), 43, 16-33.
[27]	Ladd, G., & Ettekal, I. (2013). Peer-Related Loneliness across Early to Late Adolescence: Normative Trends, Intra-Individual Trajectories, and Links with Depressive Symptoms. Journal of Adolescence, 36, 1269-1282. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2013.05.004
[28]	Light, J. M. (2007) Early Adolescent Antisocial Behavior and Peer Rejection: A Dynamic Test of a Developmental Process. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 118, 77-89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cd.202
[29]	Mason, J. (2002). Qualitative Researching. London: Sage Publications.
[30]	Mayring, P. (2000). Qualitative Content Analysis. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum Qualitative Social Research, 1, Article No. 20. http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/2-00/2-00mayring-e.htm
[31]	Moon, S. S., & Rao, U. (2010). Youth-Family, Youth-School Relationship, and Depression. Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal, 27, 115-131. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10560-010-0194-9
[32]	Orth, U., Robins, R. W., & Roberts, B. W. (2008). Low Self-Esteem Prospectively Predicts Depression in Adolescence and Young Adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 695-708. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.95.3.695
[33]	Ortner, S. (2002). Subjects and Capital: A Fragment of a Documentary Ethnography. Journal of Anthropology, 67, 9-32.
[34]	Pfeiffer, P. N., Heisler, M., Piette, J. D., Valenstein, M., & Rogers, M. (2011). Efficacy of Peer Support Interventions for Depression: A Meta-Analysis. General Hospital Psychiatry, 33, 29-36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2010.10.002
[35]	Qualter, P., & Munn, P. (2002).The Separateness of Social and Emotional Loneliness in Childhood. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 43, 233-244. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1469-7610.00016
[36]	Romeo, R. D. (2010). Adolescence: A Central Event in Shaping Stress Reactivity. Developmental Psychobiology, 52, 244-253.
[37]	Rönkä, A. R., Rautio, A., Koiranen, M., Sunnari, V., & Taanila, A. (2014). Experience of Loneliness among Adolescent Girls and Boys: Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986 Study. Journal of Youth Studies, 17, 183-203. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2013.805876
[38]	Rubin. K. H., Bukowski, W., & Parker, J. G. (1998). Peer Interactions, Relationships and Groups. In W. Damon, & N. Eisenberg (Eds.), Handbook of Child Psychology (pp. 619-700). New York: Wiley.
[39]	Rueger, S., Malecki, C., & Demaray, M. (2010). Relationship between Multiple Sources of Perceived Social Support and Psychological and Academic Adjustment in Early Adolescence: Comparisons across Gender. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 39, 47-61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10964-008-9368-6
[40]	Shavers, C. A. (2014). Commentary: Emotional Problems and Depression among Children and Adolescents in Today’s Society. Open Journal of Depression, 3, 74-87. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojd.2014.32012
[41]	Shaw, L. H., & Gant, L. M. (2002). In Defense of the Internet: The Relationship between Internet Communication and Depression, Loneliness, Self-Esteem, and Perceived Social Support. Cyber Psychology & Behavior, 5, 157-171. http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/109493102753770552
[42]	Shugart, M. A., & Lopez, E. M. (2002). Depression in Children and Adolescents. When “Moodiness” Merits Special Attention. Postgraduate Medicine, 112, 53-56.
[43]	Stickley, A., Koyanagi, A., Koposov, R., Schwab-Stone, M., & Ruchkin, V. (2014). Loneliness and Health Risk Behaviours among Russian and U.S. Adolescents: A Cross-Sectional Study. BMC Public Health, 14, 366. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-366
[44]	Thorsteinsson, E. B., & Davey, L. (2014). Adolescents’ Compulsive Internet Use and Depression: A Longitudinal Study. Open Journal of Depression, 3, 13-17. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojd.2014.31005
[45]	Thorsteinsson, E. B., Ryan, S. M., & Sveinbjornsdottir, S. (2013). The Mediating Effects of Social Support and Coping on the Stress-Depression Relationship in Rural and Urban Adolescents. Open Journal of Depression, 2, 1-6. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojd.2013.21001
[46]	Titscher, S., Meyer, M., Wodak, R., & Vetter, E. (2000). Methods of Text and Discourse Analysis. London: Sage.
[47]	Valdez, C., Lambert, S. F., & Ialongo, N. S. (2011). Identifying Patterns of Early Risk for Mental Health and Academic Problems in Adolescence: A Longitudinal Study of Urban Youth. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 42, 521-538. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10578-011-0230-9
[48]	Vanhalst, J., Klimstra, T., Luyckx, K., Scholte, R., Engels, R., & Goossens, L. (2012). The Interplay of Loneliness and Depressive Symptoms across Adolescence: Exploring the Role of Personality Traits. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 41, 776-787. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10964-011-9726-7
[49]	Whitehouse, A., Durkin, K., Jaquet, E., & Ziatas, K. (2009). Friendship, Loneliness, and Depression in Adolescents with Asperger’s Syndrome. Journal of Adolescence, 32, 309-322. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2008.03.004