Initial Taiwanese adult study supports phase-based assessment of solitude-related emotion regulation

A self-report study of 392 Taiwanese adults found initial evidence that solitude can be assessed as a temporally organized process involving phases before, during and after being alone. The researchers developed the Assessment of Solitude as Emotion Regulation (ASER) to examine regulatory processes across those phases. The results support treating solitude as a potential context for emotion regulation, but do not establish that solitude itself regulates emotions or produces better well-being.

Participants included 130 men and 262 women, with a mean age of 33.75 years. They completed the ASER alongside self-report measures of their solitude experience and affective well-being. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, internal-consistency analyses and correlational analyses assessed the assessment’s structure and validity, while independent-samples t tests and one-way analysis of variance examined differences associated with solitude preference, motivation and frequency.

The exploratory factor analysis identified a temporally differentiated structure: the before-solitude phase had two factors, while the during- and after-solitude phases each had one factor. The ASER also showed good internal consistency, and its scores were significantly associated with dimensions of the solitude experience, providing criterion-related validity. Associations with affective well-being were observed mainly for the during- and after-solitude phases.

Participants who preferred solitude or reported autonomous motivation for solitude had higher ASER scores across the phases. Solitude frequency was associated only with the before-solitude phase. Taken together, the abstract reports preliminary support for a phase-based assessment of solitude-related regulation, rather than definitive evidence for a three-phase emotion-regulation process. The study is limited by its initial validation, reliance on self-report and observational associations in a sample from Taiwan; those features prevent conclusions about causation or generalizability to other populations. Because the supplied evidence is an abstract from an early, editable version of the peer-reviewed article, the summary is limited to the reported methods and findings and does not characterize details available only in the full study.

Subject of Research: Initial validation of a phase-based assessment of solitude-related emotion regulation in Taiwanese adults

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

Article References: Lai, Y.-H., Jhu, D.-L., & Lee, K.-H. (2026). Solitude as an emotion regulation process: initial evidence from a phase-based assessment. BMC Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-026-05662-4

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s40359-026-05662-4

Keywords: solitude, emotion regulation, ASER, self-report study, Taiwanese adults, affective well-being, assessment validation, factor analysis, solitude motivation, solitude preference, emotion, regulation