Figure 2

Emotional and social loneliness scores for different age groups across time. Loneliness was assessed by a German version of the 11-items Loneliness Scale by De Jong and Gierveld, which offers a distinction between emotional and social loneliness. Emotional loneliness describes the perceived lack of intimacy in interpersonal relations, whereas social loneliness refers to a lack of a broad social network. Participants gave their answers on a 5-point frequency scale. Emotional loneliness scores can range between 0 and 6, social loneliness scores can range between 0 and 5, with higher scores representing higher perceived emotional or social loneliness respectively. Error bars depict 1 standard error.