An investigation of loneliness and related factors among the spouses of personnel deployed to long-term naval missions

Given the important effects of loneliness on health and it has not been studied precisely in our country among the spouses of personnel deployed to long-term missions, therefore, the current study was done to investigate loneliness and related factors among spouses of naval personnel.
In this cross-sectional study with simple random sampling, 120 spouses of personnel deployed to long-term naval missions were selected in one of the regions of the navy in 2015. They were assessed using the short form of the Social-Emotional Loneliness Scale (SELSA-S). Data were analyzed by SPSS software.
The mean and standard deviation of romantic loneliness, family loneliness, social loneliness, and general loneliness were 12.8±7.6, 7.8±4.5, 12.5±4.9, and 32.9±9.8, respectively. Also, it was found significant differences in loneliness scores (general, social, or family) among different age groups, number of children, and work experience of spouse (p The highest value in loneliness is related to romantic loneliness score. Younger women with fewer children are at risk of more loneliness in its all aspects.