Solitude as an emotion regulation process: initial evidence from a phase-based assessment

Solitude has often been studied as a dispositional preference or as a state of being alone. However, less attention has been paid to solitude as a temporally organized emotion regulation process. This study examined solitude from this perspective and developed the Assessment of Solitude as Emotion Regulation (ASER) to assess regulatory processes before, during, and after solitude. A sample of 392 Taiwanese adults (130 men, 262 women; mean age = 33.75 years) completed the ASER and self-report measures of solitude experience and affective well-being. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, internal consistency analyses, and correlational analyses were conducted to examine the structure and validity of the assessment. Independent-samples t tests and one-way analysis of variance were used to examine group differences by solitude preference, solitude motivation, and solitude frequency. Exploratory factor analysis supported a temporally differentiated structure. The before-solitude phase showed a two-factor structure, whereas the during- and after-solitude phases each showed a one-factor structure. The assessment demonstrated good internal consistency. Scores were significantly associated with dimensions of solitude experience, supporting criterion-related validity. Associations with affective well-being were found mainly for the during- and after-solitude phases. In addition, participants with a preference for solitude and autonomous solitude motivation reported higher scores across phases, whereas solitude frequency was associated only with the before-solitude phase. These findings provide initial support for conceptualizing solitude as a potential context for emotion regulation rather than only as a preference for being alone. They also support the preliminary utility of a phase-based assessment of solitude-related regulation.