ABSTRACT
Feelings of well-being for most people appear to be related to the quantity and perceived quality of the person’s network of social relationships. The realization of such a network of relationships is of crucial importance for alleviating loneliness. Loneliness concerns a situation in which the number of meaningful, lasting, interpersonal relationships is experienced by the person as deficient, either qualitatively or quantitatively, and as less than satisfying in meeting the person’s desires. Intimacy scores were higher for respondents who mentioned a partner as most confidant relationship than for respondents who mentioned either a friend or a close relative. People living without a partner, whose most confidant relationship has little or no intimacy, and who express the desire for new relationships can, as a consequence, be characterized as people with a high probability of loneliness. A confidant relationship with little intimacy was related to greater occurrence of loneliness.
