Motivations for Social Withdrawal, Mental Health, and Well-Being in Emerging Adulthood: A Person-Oriented Approach

Abstract

Emerging adults seek solitude because of different underlying motivational and emotional processes. The current short-term longitudinal study aimed to: (1) identify subgroups of socially withdrawn emerging adults characterized by different motivations for solitude (shyness, unsociability, social avoidance) and affect (positive, negative); and (2) compare these subgroups in terms of indices of internalizing difficulties and life-satisfaction. Participants were N = 348 university students (Mage = 21.85 years, SD = 3.84) from Italy, who completed online questionnaires at two-time points separated by three months. Results from a latent profile analysis (LPA) suggested three distinct subgroups characterized by different social withdrawal motivations (i.e., shy, unsociable, and socially avoidant), as well as a non-withdrawn subgroup (characterized by low social withdrawal motivations, low negative affect, and high positive affect). Among the results, the socially avoidant subgroup reported the highest levels of social anxiety, whereas the avoidant and shy subgroups reported the highest loneliness and lowest life satisfaction. The unsociable subgroup appeared to be the most well-adjusted subgroup of socially withdrawn emerging adults and reported similar levels of life satisfaction as the non-withdrawn subgroup. Our findings confirmed the heterogeneity of emerging adults’ experiences of solitude, with different motivations for social withdrawal appearing to confer a differential risk for maladjustment.