Loneliness and Social Self-Efficacy in Adolescence

he present study examined socio-cognitive factors involved in loneliness among adolescents. A sample of 629 (314 fe- males and 315 males) high school students in Tehran (16 years old on average), randomly selected on the basis of gen- der, grade level (201 sophomores, 206 juniors and 221 seniors) and educational fields (mathematics, science and humanities), completed the UCLA Revised Loneliness Scale (Russell, Peplau & Cutrona, 1980) and the Children and Adolescents Self-Effi- cacy Questionnaire (Murris, 2001). Findings showed that the distribution of loneliness scores for sophomores and juniors of both sexes was positively skewed and indicative of the respondents’ inclination to report low levels of loneliness. The distribu- tion of loneliness scores for seniors and across fields of study was normal. The correlation between loneliness and social self-efficacy for all study groups was negative and significant. The differences between the coefficients of correlation using a Z transformation in groups were not significant. Implications for prevention of loneliness in adolescents are discussed.