Loneliness in the elderly population Introduction Numerous studies have been conducted that have associated loneliness with depression, low self-esteem and physical illness (Hawley & Cacioppo, 2007; Sorkin, Rook and Lu , 2002). Loneliness may also be detrimental to overall health and well-being later in life due to recent evidence implying that it accelerates physiological deterioration and the progression of chronic disease in older adults (Hawkley & Cacioppo, 2007). The main points that the article seeks to address evaluate are (1) whether emotional and social loneliness in later life is multidimensional; (2) whether positive and negative social exchanges are associated with emotional or social loneliness; and (3) whether social exchange is related to emotional and social loneliness compared to previously married older individuals. Methods The study population was from the Later Life Study of Social Exchanges, a five-year, 2-year, noninstitutionalized longitudinal study with English-speaking older adults living in the United States. The sampling frame comes from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Medicare Beneficiary Eligibility List, which consists of information on nearly all older adults in the United States. The interviews began in 2000; Wave 1 data collected 916 samples of older adults aged 65 to 91 (M = 74.13, SD = 6.63). Of the total participants, 62% represented women; 83% were Caucasian; 54% were married or in a marriage-like relationship, 34% were widowed, and the remainder were separated or divorced (8% and 4% had never married). All study participants closely resembled the older American bas...... middle of paper ......cioppo, J.T. (2007). Aging and loneliness: rapid descent? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16, 187–191. Sorkin, D., Rook, K. S., & Lu, J. L. (2002). Loneliness, lack of emotional support, lack of companionship and probability of having a heart disease in a sample of older adults. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 24, 290–298. Brittany, L., & Karen, R. (2013) . Journal of social and personal relationships. Emotional and social loneliness in later life: Associations with positive and negative social exchanges, Retrieved from http://spr.sagepub.com.proxy.wichita.edu/content/30/6/813.full.pdf htmlAtchley, RC, Barusch , A.S. (2004). Social forces and aging: An introduction to social gerontology. (10th ed., (pp. 118). Belmont: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.