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The current study investigated how adolescents' loneliness relates to school connectedness, classmate support, teacher support, and offline and online communication with friends. We also examined the association between loneliness, physical health, and sleep. Data came from the Scottish Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC). The total sample was 2983 adolescents (F = 1479 [49.6%]) aged 14–17 years (M = 15.66, SD = 0.39) from 117 secondary schools in Scotland. Results showed that (1) higher teacher support, classmate support, and offline contact with friends predicted lower levels of loneliness, (2) online friendship engagement predicted higher levels of loneliness, and (3) poor health and sleep were positively associated with loneliness. The study offers new findings, highlighting the role played by classmates/peers and teachers in reducing loneliness. Supporting previous research, we also found associations between loneliness, poor sleep, and worse physical health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IntroductionAdolescence is a dynamic developmental phase in which contact with peers is crucial for socio-emotional development and wellbeing. Depression and social anxiety show patterns of high onset during this period, and more for girls than boys. Here we examine this development among Dutch adolescents, as well as how desire for more peer contact as a result of social distancing measures during the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to this increase.MethodsWe used a longitudinal three-wave design to examine 406 typically developing Dutch adolescents across two consecutive cohorts; Cohort 1: 2016–2019 (N = 138, 53.6% girls, age at T0 M = 13.00, SD = 0.42), Cohort 2: 2017–2020 (N = 268, 63.1% girls, age at T0 M = 13.05, SD = 0.39), final wave during spring 2020 during the first COVID-19 lockdown. Self-report questionnaires were used to measure depression and social anxiety symptoms, desire for change in the amount of peer contact during lockdowns, and emotion regulation. Parallel process dual latent growth models and autoregressive cross-lagged models were used to test the hypotheses.ResultsResults showed that symptoms of both depression and social anxiety increase during adolescence. Gender analysis reveal a higher initial level and increase in depression symptoms for girls, while levels for boys decreased. Adolescents exposed to the pandemic showed a steeper increase in depression but not in social anxiety. Desire for more peer contact was related to an increase in depression and social anxiety, though only in girls. No evidence was found for moderation of emotion regulation skills concerning COVID evoked emotions on the association between desire for peer contact and anxiety and depression symptom development.DiscussionSymptoms of social anxiety increased during adolescence in boys and girls. Symptoms of depression increased for girls, but decreased for boys. The increase in depression was greater in a cohort who experienced the COVID-19 pandemic. For girls, a desire for more peer contact was associated with an increase of depression and social anxiety symptoms in times of social restrictions.