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The research leading to the reported results was funded by grants from La Caixa Foundation (Grant agreement no. LCF/PR/PR16/11110004), Institut Guttmann, and Fundacio Abertis. DB-F was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation, Universities (RTI2018-095181-B-C21), and an ICREA Academia 2019 award research grants. JT was partly supported by Fundacio Joan Ribas Araquistain_Fjra, AGAUR, Agencia de Gestio d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (2018 PROD 00172), Fundacio la Marato de TV3 (201735.10). AP-L was partly supported by the National Institutes of Health (R24AG06142 and P01 AG031720).

Analysis of institutional authors

Macià DCorresponding AuthorCattaneo GAuthorBartres-Faz DAuthor

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Article

Meaning in Life: A Major Predictive Factor for Loneliness Comparable to Health Status and Social Connectedness

Publicated to:Frontiers In Psychology. 12 627547- - 2021-02-24 12(), DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.627547

Authors: Macia, Didac; Cattaneo, Gabriele; Solana, Javier; Tormos, Jose M; Pascual-Leone, Alvaro; Bartres-Faz, David

Affiliations

Departament de Biomedicina, Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut i Institut de Neurociències, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. - Author
Departament de Medicina, Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut i Institut de Neurociències, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. - Author
Departament de Medicina, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain. - Author
Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States. - Author
Harvard Med Sch, Dept Neurol, Boston, MA 02115 USA - Author
Hebrew SeniorLife, Deanna & Sidney Wolk Ctr Memory Hlth, Boston, MA USA - Author
Hebrew SeniorLife, Hinda & Arthur Marcus Inst Aging Res, Boston, MA USA - Author
Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research and Deanna and Sidney Wolk Center for Memory Health, Hebrew SeniorLife, Boston, MA, United States. - Author
Oficina de Recerca i Innovació, Institut Guttmann, Institut Universitari de Neurorehabilitació adscrit a la UAB, Badalona, Spain. - Author
UAB, Inst Univ Neurorehabil Adscrit, Inst Guttman, Oficina Recerca & Innovacio, Badalona, Spain - Author
Univ Autonoma Barcelona, Dept Med, Bellaterra, Spain - Author
Univ Barcelona, Fac Med & Ciencies Salut, Dept Biomed, Barcelona, Spain - Author
Univ Barcelona, Fac Med & Ciencies Salut, Dept Med, Barcelona, Spain - Author
Univ Barcelona, Inst Neurociencies, Barcelona, Spain - Author
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Abstract

Objective: Loneliness is the subjective distress of feeling alone and has a strong impact on wellbeing and health. In addition to well-known predictors like isolation and poor health, a better understanding of the psychological determinants of loneliness would offer effective targets for future complementary interventions. Methods: In this cross-sectional observational study (N = 2,240), we compared the explanatory power of several important risk factors of loneliness with the affective, motivational, and cognitive aspects of the Meaning in Life (MiL) construct. Different nested linear models were compared including socio-demographic, lifestyles, social-connectedness, and self-rated health variables, to assess the overlapping and non-overlapping explanatory power of each of them. Results: Health status and MiL were found to be the most important predictors of loneliness, followed by social connectedness and, with a much lower weight, lifestyles, and socio-demographic factors. Within the MiL factor, the most cognitive component, sense of coherence, had a greater explanatory power than the more affective and motivational ones. Conclusion: Reduced MiL, the capacity of an individual to attach "value and significance" to life, is a crucial predictor to the feeling of loneliness. These results suggest that programs aiming to combat loneliness should go well beyond situational interventions and include more cognitive, value-centered interventions that enable individuals to define and pursue a meaningful vital plan.Copyright © 2021 Macià, Cattaneo, Solana, Tormos, Pascual-Leone and Bartrés-Faz.

Keywords

coherencemeaning in lifemental healthpurposequestionnairescalesensesense of coherencesleepsocial isolationspanish translationvalidationwellLonelinessMeaning in lifeMental healthPsychometric evaluationSense of coherenceSocial isolation

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Frontiers In Psychology due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2021, it was in position 35/148, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Psychology, Multidisciplinary.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 2.74. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-06-26, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 32
  • Scopus: 44
  • Europe PMC: 10
  • OpenCitations: 31

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-06-26:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 140.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 140 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 4.35.
  • The number of mentions on the social network Facebook: 1 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 6 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: United States of America.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (Macià Bros, Didac) and Last Author (Bartrés Faz, David).

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been Macià Bros, Didac.