PSYCHOLOGY MASTER'S THESIS ABSTRACT

Patricia A. Mooney
MA-Research
August 1998

Loneliness and Seeking Social Support: The Mediating Role of Expressive Skills

    Two hundred college students participated in a study examining the relationship among loneliness, interpersonal expressivity, and coping strategy preferences.  It was hypothesized that: (1) Social and Emotional Expressivity would each be positively correlated with Support Seeking, (2) Loneliness would be negatively correlated with the use of Support Seeking across stressors, and, (3) Expressive Skills (Social and Emotional Expressivity combined) would moderate the effects of Loneliness on Support Seeking.  Partial correlations provided support for Hypotheses 1 and 2.  Hierarchical multiple regression was used to test Hypothesis 3; rather than a moderating effect, a mediating effect was found.  This evidence for the crucial role of expressive skills suggests that a lack of social skills wholly accounts for lonely people’s disinclination to seek social support.  Their failure to use support seeking may not only exacerbate loneliness, but preclude effective coping.  Implications for future research, and for clinical intervention with lonely persons, are discussed.

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