Loneliness is a common and often debilitating problem for individuals in contemporary society (see Peplau & Perlman, 1982). Research has documented the negative psychosocial correlates of loneliness; it has been linked to depression, alcoholism, obesity, and suicide in adults (Peplau & Perlman, 1982; Schumaker, Krejci, Small, & Sargent, 1985; Sadava & Thompson, 1987; Anderson & Harvey, 1988), and to rejection by peers, aggression, shyness, and disruptive behavior in children and adolescents (Asher, Hymel, & Renshaw, 1984; Asher & Wheeler, 1985; Cassidy & Asher, 1992).

Loneliness has been conceptualized in the literature as a state of self-perceived dissatisfaction with social relationships that is accompanied by negative affect (see Solano, Batten, & Parish, 1982). This conceptualization has guided the current measures of loneliness in children, adolescents, and adults (Russell, 1982; Asher et al., 1984) and serves as the basis for discussing loneliness in this chapter.

The focus of this chapter is on loneliness during preadolescence and the potential problems that lonely preadolescents may demonstrate in their disclosure to peers and in related social perceptions. (It should be noted that the term preadolescence refers in this chapter to the 10- through 13- year age span, the period of the transition to adolescence.) There are various reasons why this issue should be addressed.