Objectives: Determine whether exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) confer a greater vulnerability to chronic and/or transient loneliness in older age, and whether specific types of ACEs are more strongly associated with chronic and/or transient loneliness.

Methods: Participants (N = 1,532) were drawn from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), a nationally representative sample of UK adults aged 50 years and over. Multinomial logistic regressions adjusted for sociodemographic and health-related covariates were used to determine how ACEs related to chronic and transient loneliness and which subtypes of ACEs (dysfunction, threat or loss-based) are most associated with chronic and/or transient loneliness.

Results: Experiencing 1 ACE [adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 1.43 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.01-2.02)] or 2 or more ACEs [AOR 1.63 (95% CI 1.09-2.42)] was associated with a greater likelihood of experiencing chronic loneliness when compared to people who never experienced ACEs. There was no association between number of ACEs with transient loneliness. Dysfunction-based ACEs had a fully adjusted association with chronic loneliness [AOR 1.57 (95% CI 1.12-2.20)] and transient loneliness [AOR1.58 (95% CI 1.12-2.23)].

Conclusion: This research suggests that ACEs are associated with a greater likelihood of experiencing chronic loneliness in older age. More specifically, dysfunction-based ACEs (linked to parental conflict, separation, mental illness or substance use) were particularly associated with loneliness in older age. These findings suggest that it is important to consider the role of early life adversity when developing interventions to tackle loneliness in older age.