Journd of Psychosomoric Resetrrch, Vol. 29, No. I, pp. 33-42. 1985. 0022.3999/85 $3.00+ .CKl Printed in Great Britain. c ,985 Pergaman Pres\ I.td zyxwvutsrqp LONELINESS, BIRTH ORDER AND SOCIAL LOSS AMONG A GROUP OF ELDERLY WOMEN LARS ANDERSS~N (Received 23 March 1984; accepted in revisedform 14 June 1984) Abstract-This paper is concerned with birth order as a childhood experience which may effect how and when older adults experience loneliness. In this study 207 elderly women (mean age 77) were studied in terms of birth order, social loss, depressive disorder and loneliness. As hypothesized, firstborns will experience less loneliness than laterborns under socially stable circumstances. But, after a social loss, firstborns are likely to experience more loneliness than laterborns. The effect of social loss and loneliness was also examined in terms of two health outcome variables-depressive disorder and physical com- plaints. No direct or indirect (via loneliness) effect of social loss on the health variables was found. Loneliness was found to have an effect on depressive disorder but not on physical complaints. Finally, for firstborns an interaction between social loss and loneliness was observed on physical complaint outcomes. INTRODUCTION zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQP THE CAUSES of loneliness have been analysed using various theoretical approaches [l] which can be interpreted along several dimensions. One such dimension concerns the question: Does loneliness have its roots in childhood experiences or is it solely a reaction to current situations? In the present article the former explanation will be explored through an analysis of birth order (ordinal position) and its significance for the experience of loneliness after life stress. I will also explore whether loneliness might act as a vulnerability factor together with and/or mediating between the life stress and some health variables. Interest in birth order has a long history. Sir Francis Galton in “English Men of Science” (1874) and Alfred Adler, in 1928 [2], proposed that an individual’s personality is in part a function of the order of birth. But it was not until 1959 with the publication of Schachter’s “The Psychology of Affiliation” [3] that birth order research was formally established. It should be noted that birth order is best understood as an indication of more fundamental processes, according to Sampson [4]: “order of birth, in and of itself, is not useful in understanding or explaining the development of personality and behavior. Rather, ordinal position creates a particular kind of sociological environment and a set of psychological experiences that are assumed to lead to the development of patterns of personality and behavior.” Empirical studies on birth order have predominantly assessed younger age-groups. The scarcity of studies on elderly can be due to a failure of investigators to concern themselves with these age groups or as the result of a presumption of a gradual decrease in the disposition to react in accordance with the ordinal position. But it remains to be demonstrated that there is a shift in the influence of birth order over the life span. The present paper will attempt to throw some light on this question. Despite a multiplicity of theories to account for differences between siblings [5], Requests for reprints should be addressed to: Lars Andersson, Psychosocial Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Box 60 205, S-104 01 Stockholm, Sweden. This research was supported by grants from the Delegation for Social Research (75/546) and the City of Stockholm. 33