Consequences of Women's Loneliness Living in Shiraz City, Iran: A Qualitative Study

One of the crucial aspects of human development stands out as socialization. People who cannot establish and maintain satisfactory relationships with others and, as a result, have difficulty fulfilling the "need to belong," may experience a sense of deprivation, manifesting as "loneliness." The concept of loneliness goes beyond age, gender, well–being, economic status, or race. It is a global issue associated with the lives of all people. Given that women make up half of society's population and their essential role, especially in the mental and physical growth of children, the leaders of tomorrow's community, it is advisable to conduct qualitative research to investigate the consequences of women's loneliness deeply. Therefore, the present study aimed to qualitatively investigate the consequences of women's loneliness living in Shiraz City, Iran.

The research method was qualitative, using the Grounded Theory strategy based on the Strauss and Corbin (1990) approach. The sampling method was purposive. The statistical population consisted of married, divorced, and single women aged 30–55 living in Shiraz in 2018–2019. The studied sample consisted of 98 persons, including 85 married, divorced, and unmarried women aged 30–55 and 13 experts in Counseling and Psychology. The inclusion criteria for participant women were willingness to interview, cooperation in conducting the research, and having a score greater than 50 on the UCLA Loneliness Scale (Russell, 1996). Data collection on research was conducted through in–depth semi–structured face–to–face interviews. The researcher decided to obtain extensive and comprehensive information on the phenomenon of loneliness from diverse people from different places and backgrounds, including educational centers, hospitals, university professors, housewives, public and private jobs, and spiritual/religious places with education backgrounds spanning from diploma to doctorate. The interviews were held over 6 months. Each interview lasted between 10 and 35 minutes, with an average of 22 minutes. Data analysis included open coding from which the concepts and subcategories were derived, axial coding from which the causal relationships between the main categories were obtained, and selective coding from which the core category of the function of women's loneliness was obtained. Data collection was done until reaching theoretical data saturation. To check the reliability of the research, the agreement coefficient was checked with one of the experts on the interviews, and the agreement coefficient was 96%.

The results were compiled in 21 concepts, 10 subcategories, and 4 main categories. In the main category of physical harm, the subcategories were getting sick, sleep and eating disorders, and the concepts were crying and shedding, physical problems, insomnia, and anorexia. In the main category of psychological trauma, the subcategories were unfavorable mental states, dissatisfaction, mild depression, and decreased motivation, and the concepts were lack of happiness and satisfaction, carelessness, monotony in life, lack of motivation and hope, loss of self–confidence, disability in doing things, low energy levels, isolation, depression, and mental disorders. In the main category of family vulnerability, the subcategories were inappropriate marriage, feeling more loneliness, and infidelity, and the concepts were infidelity and sexual affairs. In the main category of individual growth, the subcategories were behavioral growth and cognitive development, and the concepts were having a goal, more effort, helping oneself, knowing oneself, and giving oneself value. Thus, the consequences of women's loneliness can be related to the main categories of physical harm, psychological trauma, family vulnerability, and personal development.

According to the findings, loneliness leads to many problems, including physical injury, psychological trauma, and family problems. Identifying these consequences plays an essential role in preventing these irreparable problems. Thus, awareness of women's loneliness function and its consequences is the basis for planning to educate and promote individual and family health.