ArticleScientific reports2023
Balance between solitude and socializing: everyday solitude time both benefits and harms well-being.
Article in Scientific reports, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed.
- Predictors of affect across social contexts: An integration of existing diary datasets.The British journal of social psychology · 2026Article
- Roles of Self-Stigma and Meaning in the Relationship Between Age and Loneliness: A Perspective From Gerotranscendence.PsyCh journal · 2026Article
- Article
- How does 'autistic burnout' feel? A qualitative study exploring experiences of earlier and later-diagnosed autistic adults.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2026Article
- Linear and curvilinear associations between affinity for solitude and adjustment in adolescence.Journal of research on adolescence : the official journal of the Society for Research on Adolescence · 2026Article
- Social Asymmetry and Risk of Morbidity and Mortality.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- "I got all sorts of solitude, but that solitude wasn't mine": A mixed-methods approach to understanding aloneness during becoming a mother.British journal of psychology (London, England : 1953) · 2026Article
- Personality moderates associations between personal time and parental well-being.Communications psychology · 2026Article
- Influence of emotional regulation capacity on loneliness among university students: the suppressing effect of solitude coping and the mediating effect of solitude comfort.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Perceived social support and psychological flexibility mediate the relationship between positive solitude and psychological wellbeing among Turkish adults.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Cognitive processes and pathways between social isolation, loneliness, and paranoia: findings from a cross-lagged network analysis of population-based data.Psychological medicine · 2025Article
- Impact of self-stigma of loneliness on psychological distress in older adults: mediation effect of relative deprivation and moderation effect of positive solitude.BMC geriatrics · 2025Article
- Identifying daily-living features related to loneliness: A causal machine learning approach.PloS one · 2025Article
- Changes of Solitude Behaviors among College Students: A Latent Transition Analysis.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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Abstract
Two literatures argue that time alone is harmful (i.e., isolation) and valuable (i.e., positive solitude). We explored whether people benefit from a balance between their daily solitude and social time, such that having 'right' quantities of both maximizes well-being. Participants (n = 178) completed a 21-day diary study, which quantified solitude time in hours through reconstructing daily events. This procedure minimized retrospective bias and tested natural variations across time. There was no evidence for a one-size-fits-all 'optimal balance' between solitude and social time. Linear effects suggested that people were lonelier and less satisfied on days in which they spent more hours in solitude. These detrimental relations were nullified or reduced when daily solitude was autonomous (choiceful) and did not accumulate across days; those who were generally alone more were not, on the whole, lonelier. On days in which people spent more time alone they felt less stress and greater autonomy satisfaction (volitional, authentic, and free from pressure). These benefits were cumulative; those who spent more time alone across the span of the study were less stressed and more autonomy satisfied overall. Solitude time risks lowering well-being on some metrics but may hold key advantages to other aspects of well-being. PROTOCOL REGISTRATION: The stage 1 protocol for this Registered Report was accepted in principle on June 1, 2022. The protocol, as accepted by the journal, can be found at: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/5KXQ3 .
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