Source: "Social isolation and gender"

Vandervoort, D. Curr Psychol (2000) 19: 229. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-000-1017-5

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"Previous research has found that men generally get their emotional needs met by their spouses/partners while women often get their emotional needs met by their female friends. Consistent with the literature, and given that most of our respondents were single, this study supports the contention that men are generally more socially isolated than women because they do not create adequate emotional intimacy when they are not in partnership with a significant other."

"It has also been found that high numbers of social contacts do not ward off loneliness. It is only when these relationships involve emotional intimacy and disclosure that one is freed from loneliness (Wheeler et al., 1983). This finding is in accord with Freud's (1953) theory, and subsequent empirical evidence supporting his theory, that satisfactory mental health requires the processing, and not permanent repression of, significant emotional events in our lives. It is also reminiscent of Maslow's (1970) portrait of the self-actualized person who forms deep interpersonal relationships with a small but close circle of friends. And it is consistent with Roger's (1961; 1980) therapeutic stance that it is when we are deeply understood, accepted for where we are at any given point in our life course, and valued for who we are as a person, that we can move on to a better place or state of being. This finding also provides an explanation for the finding in many of the large epidemiological studies on social support and mortality that the risk ratio results assume a nonlinear or threshold form (Blazer, 1982; House et al., 1982; Orth-Gomer & Johnson, 1987; Schoenbach et al., 1986). That is, mortality was higher among the most socially isolated but declined only slightly, if at all, for those with moderate or high numbers of social ties. "