Associations between Loneliness and Social Anxiety: Predictors of Life-Satisfaction in Young Adults

This research builds upon current findings pertaining to life-satisfaction. Loneliness, related to inadequate well-being, has been shown to negatively affect various domains of one's life. Moreover, Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) has negative consequences that have been shown to affect the quality of one's well-being. The present research conducted two studies to elucidate the connection between loneliness and SAD as potential predictors of life-satisfaction. The first study sought to clarify the relationship between social and emotional loneliness and life-satisfaction. It was predicted that lower social loneliness scores will predict higher life-satisfaction scores, and lower emotional loneliness scores will predict higher life-satisfaction scores. The purpose of the second study was to again, examine social and emotional loneliness as predictors of life-satisfaction, but it was also the aim to examine SAD as a potential predictor of life-satisfaction. It was hypothesized that lower social anxiety scores will predict higher life-satisfaction scores, and lower social and emotional loneliness scores will predict higher life-satisfaction scores. These hypotheses were both partially supported. Limitations of the study, such as sample size, participants representativeness, and scale reliability measures are discussed.