Table 3.

Summary of empirical studies investigating generational differences in loneliness

Study	Design	Age groups	Country	Time period	Summary of results
Clark et al. (2015)52	Cross-temporal meta-analysis	Young adults	USA	1978–2009	Later-born college students are less lonely than earlier-born college students
	Longitudinal	Young adults	USA	1977–2012	Decline in loneliness in later-born high-school students
Dahlberg et al. (2018)65	Repeated cross-sectional	Old adults	Sweden	1992 2002 2004 2011 2014	No cohort-linked differences
Eloranta et al. (2015)66	Repeated cross-sectional	Old adults	Finland	1991 2011	No cohort-linked differences
Hawkley et al. (2022)21	Repeated cross-sectional	Young adults, old adults	USA	2014 2018	Increase in loneliness in younger age groups; decrease in older age groups
Hawkley et al. (2019)166	Data from two longitudinal studies with refreshment samples	Middle-aged to old adults	USA	Data 1: 2005–2006 2010–2011 2015–2016 Data 2: 2006–2016	No cohort-linked differences
Hülür et al. (2016)61	Case-matched repeated cross-sectional design	Old adults	Germany	1990–1993 2013–2014	Lower levels of loneliness in the later-born cohort than in the earlier-born cohort
Nyqvist et al. (2017)64	Population-based cohort study with refreshment samples	Old adults	Sweden	2000–2002 2005–2007 2010–2012	No cohort-linked differences
Suanet & van Tilburg (2019)62	Longitudinal with refreshment samples	Middle-aged to old adults	Netherlands	1992–2016	Later-born cohorts were less lonely than earlier-born cohorts
Trzesniewski & Donnellan (2010)167	Repeated cross-sectional	Young adults	USA	1976–2006	No cohort-linked differences
van Tilburg et al. (2015)79	Cross-sectional	Middle-aged adults	Netherlands	1992 2002 2012	Less loneliness in divorcées in later-born cohorts than in earlier-born cohorts
Victor et al. (2002)63	Cross-sectional	Old adults	England	1945–1960, 1999	No cohort-linked differences

Young adults include college and high school students or samples with a mean age below 31 years; middle-aged adults include samples aged 31–59 years; old adults include samples aged 60 years and older. The age group classification was based on the age information provided in the article.