Human beings are social creatures and need social connections to thrive in society. I observed low social connectedness amongst the students with disabilities in my high school and wanted to do more research on the cause of this occurrence. In my literary analysis and proposal, I highlight the effects social isolation and loneliness have on the well-being of people. While concluding that negative health effects come from low social connection, I researched the prevalence of low social connection amongst the disabled population and found that although low social connectedness can impact anyone, those with disabilities experience more low social connectedness than those without disabilities. I then analyzed ways in which low social connection can be addressed and focused on measuring social isolation and loneliness as indicators of low connectedness. I proposed a promising mentorship program intervention for my chosen population, young adults with disabilities, to help them increase social connection. This proposal may be adapted for use with any population. My goal for this program is to help increase social connection, promote societal support, and increase self-esteem and knowledge of their desired career and life skills as they transition into adult roles. Furthermore, I hope this paper may help spread awareness and get society to think of ways interventions to promote social connectedness can be implemented for people, like young adults with disabilities, who experience low social connectedness.

This paper is a review of current scientific literature in the area of social isolation and health in both humans and nonhuman animals. Social isolation is an important subject today with social isolation generally increasing throughout human populations across the globe. Animals offer critical insights into certain mechanisms of social isolation. While assessing social isolation in animals is quite different in comparison to humans, the results of experimentation often show that animals share similar biological responses to social isolation with humans. Areas of social isolation research assessed in this paper include social isolation terms, methods and/or measurement, interventions (including environmental enrichment in animals), and biopathology. While some comparative studies exist that compare social isolation in humans and animals, this paper attempts to be a summative analysis of literature in multiple specific areas of social isolation research. The purpose of this literature review is to provide a perspective of first how social isolation is defined, of how it is measured, and finally the significance of both humans' and animals' biological responses to social isolation. Of these areas, comparisons between humans and animals offer critical insights for future social isolation research.