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Some 25.5% of Spanish youth between the ages of 16 and 29 claim to have felt unwanted loneliness and 69% of young people have felt lonely at some point in their lives. This is confirmed by the first report in Spain on unwanted loneliness in young people prepared by the State Observatory of Loneliness and promoted by Ayuda en Acción and Fundación ONCE.
“This report not only provides us with a novel and relevant view of great impact on our youth. It also alerts us to the great importance of the impact of inequalities and poverty along with aspects such as gender, sexual orientation or origin,” says Matías Figueroa, Director of European Programs at Ayuda en Acción.
A study that sheds light on a problem that has been silenced
For the preparation of the study, telephone interviews were conducted with a total of 1800 people between 16 and 29 years of age living in Spain. Among the main objectives of the report are to make visible the incidence of loneliness in Spanish youth, what is their perception of it and to investigate the causes and correlations with mental health or social inequalities to, from there, identify solutions and recommendations.
“The study shows that unwanted loneliness has a direct relationship with access to employment and, therefore, with inequality and poverty. Young people in a situation of unemployment and vulnerability suffer much more pronounced loneliness than the average,” explains the NGO spokesperson. “We must remember once again that the unemployment rate of youth between 16 and 29 years of age is double that of the rest of the population due to a series of disadvantages and inequalities detailed in our study of disadvantaged transitions. In addition, access to basic goods such as housing is far from guaranteed to develop a life”.
Relevant data on unwanted loneliness
The study on youth and unwanted loneliness in Spain yields several conclusions related to different states of loneliness in social relationships, education, employment, poverty or state of health.
Three out of every four young people who say they suffer from unwanted loneliness (75.8%) say they have been feeling it for more than a year. Almost half (45.7%) have been lonely for more than three years. In this regard, the report's authoring committee clarifies that the pandemic is the cause of this situation for only 20.4%, which means that 79.6% of respondents do not attribute their loneliness to the coronavirus. As for the intensity and worst moments of the feeling of loneliness, 71.4% of the young people who feel lonely say that they suffer from this problem “frequently". Some 30.5% of them feel loneliness especially at night.
The relationship with work and poverty has a strong correspondence with unwanted loneliness: unemployed people suffer a prevalence of loneliness 5 points higher than those who study or work. And the prevalence of unwanted loneliness among young people from households with economic difficulties is almost twice as high as among young people from households that make ends meet easily (36% vs. 19.4%).
The study also highlights the relationship between mental health problems and unwanted loneliness among young people. Thus, young people with perceived or diagnosed mental health problems are 2.5 times more likely to suffer unwanted loneliness, those who suffer from anxiety or depression 89.2% more. On the other hand, those who acknowledge having low self-esteem are 83.2% more likely and those who have had suicidal thoughts are 81.1% more likely.
In addition, loneliness affects more women (31.1%) than men (20.2%). Likewise, people of foreign origin or LGTBI suffer higher rates of loneliness. “It is very important that we take note that origin, gender or sexual orientation have a significant effect on unwanted loneliness in youth and the relationship this has with what kind of society we have or want,” says the Director of European Programs.
Inequality and its relationship between unwanted loneliness and education
Ayuda en Acción points out that there is a strong relationship between loneliness, educational level and the conditions in which the education of youth is developed. “The relationship between school or workplace bullying and unwanted loneliness in youth is enormous,” Figueroa says. The percentage of those who have been bullied at school or at work at some time in their lives is almost twice as high in the group of young people who suffer from unwanted loneliness (58.1%) as in the group of those who do not (32.1%).
In addition, the survey shows a relationship between educational level and loneliness. University-educated youth experience the lowest levels of loneliness. “It is a question of access to higher education and social inequality, but also of accompaniment and means in relation to dropping out of school,” continues Matías Figueroa. Youth who have repeated a grade suffer a prevalence of unwanted loneliness 10 points higher than those who have not repeated. There is also a relationship with early school leaving and low academic performance.
As Ayuda en Acción recalled on Education Day, in Spain the EU SDG indicators show a trend of improvement in the results of the SDG 4. However, they also warn that it is necessary to make greater efforts to achieve the goals for 2030. Especially in terms of reducing school dropout rates, where Spain is still far from the target of only 9%, standing at 13.9%. Furthermore, the organization warns that these data are related to a basic school infrastructure and a series of opportunities that are neither universal nor equal. All this is the result of the decrease in overall spending on education in the last ten years and the disparities between autonomous communities in social policies.
Requests and lines of work for the year 2024
Ayuda en Acción works with youth in vulnerable situations through vocational guidance and psychosocial support. "We develop individualized and group programs to work with young people in the different educational stages. We complement the contents that are already being worked on through the teaching teams with active learning methodologies,” says Matías Figueroa. The organization works with challenge-based learning and service learning to try to motivate students and facilitate the acquisition of key competencies and skills to link them with the real needs that exist in the environment. “The articulation with the local business world is key for the social and labor insertion of students. For this reason, we try to involve all social agents within the base that is the educational center,” he adds.
In addition, Ayuda en Acción accompanies young people through the adaptation of these aforementioned measures with the aim of reactivating their employability conditions and thus facilitating their educational or socio-labor insertion.
Presentation of the report in Andalusia
On February 21, we presented the report to the Andalusian Regional Minister for Social Inclusion, Youth, Families and Equality, Loles López. ONCE delegate in Andalusia, Ceuta and Melilla, Cristóbal Martínez, and the delegate of Ayuda en Acción in Andalusia, José Manuel Román, explained the key points of the research and reflected with the minister on the importance of joining forces to tackle this silenced problem.
Presentation of the report in Asturias
The report also reached Oviedo, Asturias, where it was presented on March 18 at a joint event organized by Fundación ONCE and Ayuda en Acción.
About a hundred people attended the event, which was attended by: Matilde Fernández, president of the State Observatory of Unwanted Loneliness; Yobanka Cuervo Álvarez, ONCE delegate in Asturias; Marta Malgor Vázquez, president of the ONCE Territorial Council in Asturias; Elena Rua Arruñada, Ayuda en Acción delegate in Asturias; Enrique Rodríguez Nuño, General Director of Promotion of Personal Autonomy and the Elderly of the Principality of Asturias; Isabel González Castillo, technician of the Youth Council of Oviedo; and Adrián Tuñón, consultant of Fresno, the right link.
