Forms of showing love in relationships with loved ones versus feelings of loneliness in young adults

Since the experience of love and close relationships is one of the most important aspects of human life, man defines his existence by diverse relationships. The congruence of expected and received forms of love transmission is important. This study verifies whether there is a relationship between the forms of showing love and the sense of loneliness in a group of young adults. Methods: The study used the Forms of Expressions of Love Questionnaire (FOREM) designed by M. Rys and colleagues, and the R-UCLA Loneliness Scale, a Polish adaptation of Russell, Peplau and Cutrona’s tool, developed by M. Kwiatkowska, R. Rogoza and K. Kwiatkowska. The survey with the participation of 73 women and 73 men was conducted online. The youngest person was 18 years old, and the oldest –34 (Max = 34). The average age of the subjects was just under 24 (M = 23.99). Results: The results of correlation analysis with the application of Kendall’s Tau-b coefficient proved to be statistically significant for the associations of all subscales of feelings of loneliness and the overall score of this variable, with the discrepancy between expected and received forms of love in terms of help and time. All statistically significant correlations were positive, meaning that the greater the discrepancy between the expected and received form of love, the higher the sense of loneliness. The strongest statistically significant correlation was that of the dimension of help with the dimensions of belonging and affiliation (Tau-b = 0.247; p < 0.01) while the weakest was the correlation of the dimension of time with the dimension of social others (Tau-b = 0.131; p < 0.05). Conclusions: The results of the study indicate that young adults do not experience love in the expected forms regarding affectionate touch, help from the other person and time devoted to them. The greater the discrepancy between the expected and received forms of love, the higher the feelings of loneliness among young adults.