The Australian Journal of Psychology is issuing a call for papers for a special issue on loneliness and belonging to be published in 2020.

The Australian Journal of Psychology is the premier scientific journal of the Australian Psychological Society. The journal publishes high quality peer-reviewed articles with international scope and vision.

In the literature, belonging and loneliness are shown to be related constructs, that are considered to be subjective states that play a role in normal human emotion (Mellor, Stokes, Firth, Hayashi, Cummins, 2008). Belonging is considered to be a psychological need for interpersonal bonds (e.g., Baumeister & Leary, 1995), while loneliness can arise when there is a “difference between one’s actual relationships and one’s desired relationships” (Lim, Gleeson, Alvarez-Jimenez, & Penn, 2018).

This special issue will showcase research on belonging and loneliness with a specific emphasis on solutions and interventions. This special issue invites reports of experimental and survey studies, including reports of qualitative investigations, on pure and applied topics related to belonging and loneliness.

Research topics of particular interest include:

  • the relation between belonging and loneliness
  • the impact of loneliness across the lifespan
  • belonging and loneliness measures and interventions
  • belonging and loneliness in cross cultural contexts
  • belonging and loneliness in special populations (e.g., indigenous, disability)
  • Australian perspectives on belonging and loneliness

All manuscripts should subscribe to the manuscript submission guidelines found on the website: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/17429536/homepage/forauthors.html\

To be considered for the Special Issue, please submit a 200-word abstract of your paper to the special issue editors by May 15, 2019.  You will be informed if your manuscript is accepted for consideration by June 15, 2019. The initial submission date of full manuscripts is August 30, 2019. Please note that all manuscripts will undergo the journal’s regular review process prior to acceptance for publication in this special issue.  Publication of this special issue is projected to be volume 72, Issue 1, 2020, however earlier publication online will occur for all approved manuscripts.

More information about the Journal may be found at  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/17429536/homepage/productinformation.html

Special Issue Editors:

Dr Kelly Allen, Honorary Fellow, Centre for Positive Psychology, University of Melbourne.  drkellyallen@gmail.com

Professor Michael J. Furlong, Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Research Professor. University of California Santa Barbara.

All correspondence to Kelly Allen: drkellyallen@gmail.com

References

Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 11(3), 497-529.

Lim, M.H., Gleeson, J.F.M., Alvarez-Jimenez, M. et al. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol (2018) 53: 221. https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1007/s00127-018-1482-5

Mellor, D., Stokes, M., Firth, L. Hayashi, Y., and Cummins, R. (2008). Need for belonging, relationship satisfaction, loneliness, and life satisfaction, Personality and individual differences, 45(3), 213-218, doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2008.03.020.