BACKGROUND: Loneliness is common in adolescence and has been linked to various negative outcomes. Until now, however, there has been little cross-country research on this phenomenon. The aim of the present study was to examine which factors are associated with adolescent loneliness in three countries that differ historically and culturally-the Czech Republic, Russia and the United States, and to determine whether adolescent loneliness is associated with poorer psychological and somatic health. METHODS: Data from a school survey, the Social and Health Assessment (SAHA), were used to examine these relations among 2205 Czech, 1995 Russian, and 2050 U.S. male and female adolescents aged 13 to 15 years old. Logistic regression analysis was performed to examine if specific demographic, parenting, personal or school-based factors were linked to feeling lonely and whether lonely adolescents were more likely to report psychological (depression and anxiety) or somatic symptoms (e.g. headaches, pain). RESULTS: Inconsistent parenting, shyness, and peer victimisation were associated with higher odds for loneliness in at least 4 of the 6 country- and sex-wise subgroups (i.e. Czech, Russian, U.S. boys and girls). Parental warmth was a protective factor against feeling lonely among Czech and U.S. girls. Adolescents who were lonely had higher odds for reporting headaches, anxiety and depressive symptoms across all subgroups. Loneliness was associated with other somatic symptoms in at least half of the adolescent subgroups. CONCLUSION: Loneliness is associated with worse adolescent health across countries. The finding that variables from different domains are important for loneliness highlights the necessity of interventions in different settings in order to reduce loneliness and its detrimental effects on adolescent health.

Child Study Centre Yale University Medical School New Haven CT 06520 USA

Department of Child and Adolescent Mental Health National Institute of Mental Health National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry Kodaira Tokyo Japan

Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Division of Neuroscience Uppsala University Uppsala S 751 85 Sweden

Department of Child Psychiatry Charles University 2nd Faculty of Medicine University Hospital Motol 5 Uvalu 84 15006 Prague Czech Republic

Department of Human Ecology Graduate School of Medicine The University of Tokyo Tokyo Japan

Institute of Psychology of the Czech Academy of Sciences Veveří 97 602 00 Brno Czech Republic

Instituto de Salud Carlos 3 Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental CIBERSAM Madrid Spain

Regional Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare UiT The Arctic University of Norway Tromsø Norway

Research and Development Unit Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu Fundació Sant Joan de Déu Sant Boi de Llobregat Barcelona Spain

Stockholm Centre for Health and Social Change Södertörn University 141 89 Huddinge Sweden

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