Thesis:

Title : Quantity and quality of social relationships and their relationship with loneliness in older adults in Esfarayen city.

The present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between the quantity and quality of social relationships and loneliness among older adults in the city of Esfarayen. The statistical population of the study consisted of older adults in Esfarayen who were selected based on a report provided by the Welfare Organization. A sample size of 100 participants was determined and selected using census sampling; following the distribution and collection of the questionnaires, 85 usable questionnaires were obtained for the final analysis. The data were collected using the research instruments and analyzed at both descriptive and inferential levels. In the descriptive analysis, the demographic characteristics of the respondents showed that 68.24% of the sample were women and 31.76% were men, and the highest age frequency was observed in the 71–75-year age group, accounting for 47.5% of the sample. In the inferential analysis, the results of multiple regression showed that the quantity and quality of social relationships simultaneously had a significant relationship with loneliness. The multiple correlation coefficient was 0.640 and the coefficient of determination was 0.409, indicating that these two variables jointly explained 40.9% of the variance in loneliness. Furthermore, the results of the Pearson correlation test showed a significant negative relationship between the quantity of social relationships and loneliness (r = ?0.508), as well as a significant negative relationship between the quality of social relationships and loneliness (r = ?0.460). Accordingly, as the quantity and quality of social relationships increase, the level of loneliness among older adults decreases. Overall, the findings of the study emphasize the importance of social relationships in reducing loneliness among older adults.

Keywords: Key words : quantity of social relations , quality of social relations , loneliness feeling , elderly adults