Solitude Advocacy
@solitude.advocacy

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Abuse
  • Limited alone time in abusive relationships: Abusive partners often control victims’ access to solitude as a form of power and domination (for example, monitoring their time alone or limiting access to private spaces).
Adolescence
  • Age and appreciation of solitude: emerging adults displayed more positive views of someone who enjoys solitude.
  • Adolescents benefit from solitude in nature: Adolescents who spend time alone in natural settings show a 33% increase in mood stability.
Childhood
  • Childhood solitude can pay off: exposure to the benefits of solitude in childhood is associated with enjoyment of solitude later in life.
    • Citation: Weinstein, N., Hansen, H., & Nguyen, T. (2023). “Who feels good in solitude? A qualitative analysis of the personality and mindset factors relating to well‐being when alone.” European Journal of Social Psychology, 53(7), 1443–1457. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2983
Creativity
  • Solitude is linked to creativity: Studies reveal that solitude enhances creative thinking.
    • Citation: Long, C.R. and Averill, J.R. (2003), “Solitude: An Exploration of Benefits of Being Alone.” Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 33: 21-44. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5914.00204
Culture
  • Cultural attitudes toward solitude: Eastern cultures value solitude for self-cultivation more than Western cultures, where it is often associated with isolation.
    • Citation: Yu, Z., Ye, B., Hu, Y., & Yang, Q. (2022). “Latent profile analysis of positive solitude during the recurrent outbreak of COVID-19.” Frontiers in Public Health, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.872128
    • Citation: Markus, Hazel Rose, and Shinobu Kitayama. “Culture and the Self: Implications for Cognition, Emotion, and Motivation.” Psychological Review, vol. 98, no. 2, 1991, pp. 224–253, https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.98.2.224.
  • Solitude for refugees: alone time can play an important role in refugee wellness, especially to recover from the ongoing task of cultural integration.
Gender
  • Gender disparity in solitude: On average, women have less leisure time than men, which affects opportunities for solitude and self-care.
    • Citation: Bianchi, Suzanne M., et al. “Gender and Time Allocation of Housework and Childcare in U.S. Households.” Journal of Marriage and Family, vol. 62, no. 3, 2000, pp. 735–747.
    • Citation: “Table 11. Waking hours spent alone or with others” U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/atus.t11.htm
  • Gendered solitude in literature: solitary women and feminine solitude are underrepresented in the literary canon.
    • Citation: Shierry, Addison. “Well Enough Alone: an Exploration of Feminine Solitude in Four American Novels.” University of Texas at Dallas Eugene McDermott Library, May 2023. https://hdl.handle.net/10735.1/9928
Introversion

  • Does introversion translate into a preference for solitude?: Not necessarily.
    • Citation: Nguyen, T. T., Weinstein, N., & Ryan, R. M. (2022). “Who enjoys solitude? autonomous functioning (but not introversion) predicts self-determined motivation (but not preference) for solitude.” PLoS ONE, 17(5), e0267185. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0267185
Mental Health
  • Alone time is important to mental health: 56% of respondents said it’s very important to their mental health to have adequate alone time.
  • Solitude is different from loneliness: Solitude is chosen and beneficial, while loneliness is involuntary and often harmful to mental health.
    • Citation: Hawkley, Louise C., and John T. Cacioppo. “Loneliness Matters: A Theoretical and Empirical Review of Consequences and Mechanisms.” Annals of Behavioral Medicine, vol. 40, no. 2, 2010, pp. 218–227, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-010-9210-8.
Well-being
  • Solitude can play an important role in well-being: “solitude skills” include connecting with self, protecting time, and finding a balance.
Work
  • Solitude can help us adapt to demanding social contexts—for example, in the workplace.
    • Birditt, K. S., Manalel, J. A., Sommers, H., Luong, G., & Fingerman, K. L. (2018). “Better off alone: daily solitude is associated with lower negative affect in more conflictual social networks.” The Gerontologist, 59(6), 1152–1161. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gny060