Loneliness as a determinant of well-being among older adults from a city in southern Peru

The present study aimed to identify whether there is a significant relationship between loneliness and subjective well-being in three associations of older adults in a city in southern Peru. A non-experimental, cross-sectional, and descriptive-correlational design was employed. Data were collected using the De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale, adapted and standardized for the Peruvian population by Ventura and Caycho (2017), and the Subjective Well-Being Scale (EBS-20), developed by Calleja and Mason (2019). The sample consisted of 103 older adults. The results show that there is no significant relationship between fear of loneliness and the life satisfaction dimension of subjective well-being, nor between fear of loneliness and the positive affect dimension of the same variable. Additionally, a very low level of subjective well-being was found in 76.7% of participants, and 47.6% reported a severe level of loneliness. It is concluded that there is no significant relationship between fear of loneliness and subjective well-being, with a correlation coefficient of -0.059.