Childhood Experiences, Health and Loneliness

This chapter examines the associations between loneliness, health and adverse childhood experiences. First, it describes the general patterns of these variables across 27 European Union member states. Second, it investigates the association between loneliness and early-life adverse experiences, controlling for individuals’ current situation and demographic and socio-economic conditions. Third, it examines the interplay between adverse childhood conditions and the statistically and economically considerable association between loneliness and physical and mental health outcomes. Finally, the chapter assesses the robustness of the main findings to alternative measures of loneliness. Results show that there is a significant association between adverse childhood experiences and loneliness even after accounting for a range of individual-specific factors, suggesting that feelings of loneliness may be a result not only of individuals’ current circumstances but also of their upbringing. Childhood experiences are also strongly associated with different health outcomes in adulthood. The association between loneliness and health reduces in magnitude once we take account of childhood experiences. In addition to a direct association between early-life conditions and health, this result indicates that adverse childhood conditions may be linked to health outcomes indirectly through loneliness.