(PS7-98) The Relationship Between Loneliness, Suspiciousness, and Perceived Stress in Mid-to-late Adulthood

Background: Loneliness is a leading risk factor for poor health outcomes and psychopathology in mid-to-late adulthood and, more specifically, has been shown to precede the onset of suspiciousness in clinical and nonclinical samples. Research suggests that stressful life events mediate the relationship between loneliness and suspiciousness, and perceived stress has been linked to both loneliness and suspiciousness. However, to our knowledge, no study has investigated the potential mediational role of perceived stress in the relationship between loneliness and suspiciousness. We hypothesized that perceived stress would mediate this relationship.

Methods: Participants (N=183) included a follow-up of a birth cohort, the Child Health and Development Studies, now in late middle age (mean age= 60.4) from the Healthy Brains Project. Loneliness was assessed using the UCLA three-item Loneliness Scale, suspiciousness was assessed using the Structured Interview for Psychosis-risk Syndromes, and perceived stress was assessed using the Perceived Stress Scale. Bivariate analyses using Pearson’s correlations were used to assess associations between loneliness, suspiciousness, and perceived stress. Mediation analysis using 5,000 bootstrapped samples was conducted to examine direct effects between loneliness as the independent variable, suspiciousness as the dependent variable, and indirect effects through perceived stress. Significant results were indicated by the 95% confidence interval (CI) of the indirect effect not including zero. Supplementary mediation analyses treating suspiciousness as the independent variable and loneliness as the dependent variable were also conducted to examine the statistical directionality among the variables.

Results: Loneliness was significantly associated with suspiciousness (p < 0.001) and perceived stress (p < 0.001). Additionally, perceived stress was associated with suspiciousness (p < 0.001). In mediation analyses, the direct effect from loneliness to suspiciousness was non-significant, but the indirect effect from loneliness to suspiciousness through perceived stress was significant (b = 0.07, 95% CI = [0.13, 0.15]). Supplementary mediation analyses indicated that the direct effect from suspiciousness to loneliness was also non-significant, and the indirect effect from suspiciousness to loneliness through perceived stress was significant (b = 0.25, 95% CI = [0.12, 0.43]).

Conclusions: While the data was collected cross-sectionally thus limiting our interpretation of the directionality among variables, our results demonstrate that perceived stress may mediate the relationship between loneliness and suspiciousness in late middle age. Focusing on perceived stress for older adults experiencing loneliness and/or suspiciousness may be a beneficial intervention. Future studies examining longitudinal assessments of these measures would be useful to better untangle directionality of these relationships.