Abstract / Summary
Abstract Background Loneliness is one of the major psychosocial challenges of later life and is associated with adverse physical and mental health outcomes. Although both real-life social networks and virtual social networks may influence loneliness, their relative contributions to different dimensions of loneliness remain unclear. This study investigated the relationships between loneliness, social network size, and social media use among community-dwelling older adults. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted among 147 older adults attending day-care centers and Welfare Organization–affiliated centers in Bonab and Maragheh, Iran. Participants completed the De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale, the Lubben Social Network Scale-6 (LSNS-6), and the Social Media Use Questionnaire. Pearson and Kendall correlation analyses were used to examine bivariate associations. Multiple and simple linear regression analyses were performed to compare the relative contributions of social network size and social media use to social loneliness, emotional loneliness, and total loneliness. Demographic factors associated with social media use were also examined. Results Participants reported relatively high levels of loneliness despite having moderate social network size and moderate social media use. Social network size was inversely correlated with social loneliness (r = − 0.52, p < 0.001) and total loneliness (r = − 0.42, p < 0.001), but not with emotional loneliness (p = 0.238). Social media use was inversely associated with emotional loneliness (ρ = −0.20, p = 0.017), whereas its association with social loneliness was weaker (ρ = −0.17, p = 0.036) and it was not significantly correlated with total loneliness (p = 0.467). Regression analyses demonstrated that social network size was the strongest predictor of social loneliness (B = − 0.15, p < 0.001) and total loneliness (B = − 0.12, p < 0.001), explaining 27% and 20% of the variance, respectively. In contrast, social media use independently predicted emotional loneliness (B = − 0.04, p = 0.037) but showed a considerably smaller contribution to overall loneliness. Younger age, higher educational attainment, higher income, and greater diversity of social media platforms were associated with higher levels of social media use. Conclusions Real-life and virtual social networks appear to influence different dimensions of loneliness in older adults. Expanding real-life social networks may be particularly effective in reducing social and overall loneliness, whereas social media use may primarily support emotionally meaningful relationships and help alleviate emotional loneliness. These findings suggest that digital communication should complement, rather than replace, face-to-face social relationships in interventions designed to reduce loneliness among older adults.