Table 3.

Indirect effects of ethnicity (columns) on social and emotional loneliness (broader columns), mediated by several risk factors (rows) (n = 17 850; Dutch = reference group)

Risk factors	Emotional loneliness			Social loneliness
	Moroccans	Turks	Surinamese	Moroccans	Turks	Surinamese
Total effecta	0.44***	0.59***	0.41***	0.33***	0.80***	0.38***
Total indirect effect	0.98***	1.14***	0.87***	1.22***	1.49***	1.13***
Direct effectb	−0.54***	−0.55***	−0.46***	−0.89***	−0.69***	−0.75***
Background variables
Female	0.01	0.00	−0.00	−0.00	−0.00	0.00
Age	−0.02***	−0.03***	−0.01***	−0.02***	−0.02***	−0.01***
Living without partner	−0.03**	−0.02**	0.04**	−0.09**	−0.05**	0.10***
Socioeconomic
Education	0.04***	0.04***	0.02***	0.05***	0.04***	0.03***
High (REF)
Middle	0.00	0.00	−0.00	0.00	0.00	−0.00
Low	−0.03***	−0.03***	0.01	−0.03***	−0.02***	0.00
None/primary	0.13***	0.11***	0.04***	0.19***	0.15***	0.06***
Perceived income
Comfortable (REF)
Fairly easy	0.01**	0.01**	0.00*	0.01**	0.02**	0.01**
Some difficulties	0.03***	0.03***	0.03***	0.04***	0.04***	0.03***
Great difficulties	0.03***	0.05***	0.03***	0.02***	0.03***	0.02***
Employment situation
Paid job	0.05	0.02	0.00	0.06	0.02	0.00
Retired	−0.05***	−0.06***	−0.03***	−0.03***	−0.04***	−0.02***
Unemployed	0.01***	0.01***	0.02***	0.01***	0.02***	0.02***
Incapacitated	0.03***	0.05***	0.03***	0.03***	0.06***	0.03***
Welfare	0.06***	0.05***	0.05***	0.07***	0.05***	0.06***
Housewife/houseman	0.01***	0.01***	−0.01**	0.02***	0.01***	−0.01***
Student	0.00	−0.00	−0.00	0.00	−0.00	0.00
Health
Good perceived health	0.14***	0.15***	0.12***	0.17***	0.18***	0.14***
Chronic disease	0.02	0.04**	0.04**	0.02	0.04**	0.04**
Anxiety/depression	0.25***	0.42***	0.18***	0.35***	0.59***	0.25***
Neighbourhood
Living in deprived neighbourhood	0.06***	0.06***	0.04***	0.08***	0.08***	0.06***
Satisfaction neighbourhood	0.10***	0.10***	0.05***	0.02***	0.02***	0.01***
Neighbours get along well	0.06	0.06	0.07	0.06	0.06	0.07
Contact with neighbours
Frequent (REF)
Sometimes	−0.00	−0.00	−0.00	−0.00	−0.00	−0.00
Never	0.02***	0.03***	0.04***	0.03***	0.03***	0.04***
Helping neighbours	0.02	0.01	0.04	0.02	0.01	0.05
Volunteer work	0.02***	0.02***	0.02***	0.03***	0.02***	0.02***
Perceived discrimination	0.16***	0.17***	0.14***	0.16***	0.16***	0.13***

Notes: The model fits the data reasonably well (χ² (1055) = 7273.22, P < 0.001; RMSEA = 0.02; CFI = 0.94, TLI = 0.93). ‘Great difficulties with making ends meet’ and ‘anxiety/depression’ were allowed to covary, which is theoretically justified, since poverty has been found as a risk factor for depression.²⁶

^aThe sum of all indirect and direct effects.

^bTotal effect of ethnicity on loneliness minus the total indirect effect.

*P < 0.05; ^**P < 0.01; ^***P < 0.001.