UCLA Loneliness Scale (Version 3)

2018-06-26 4:03 pm

Measuring Mobility Toolkit > Measure Selector > UCLA Loneliness Scale (Version 3)

UCLA Loneliness Scale (Version 3)

Factor: Being Valued in Community

Age: Teen, Adult

Duration: 3-5 minutes

Reading Level: 6th-8th grade

What

Developed by psychologist Daniel Russell (1996), the UCLA Loneliness Scale (Version 3) is a 20-item measure that assesses how often a person feels disconnected from others.

Who

Researchers have used this measure with many different groups, including homeless youth (Kidd, 2007), teen mothers (Barth, Schinke, & Maxwell, 1983), and Latino immigrants living on a low income (DeLiema, Gassoumis, Homier, & Wilber, 2012).

How

INSTRUCTIONS

Using a 4-point rating scale (1= never; 4 = always), participants answer 20 questions, such as “How often do you feel left out?” and “How often do you feel part of a group of friends?” Researchers later reverse-code the positively worded items so that high values mean more loneliness, and then calculate a score for each respondent by averaging their ratings.

RESPONSE FORMAT

1 = never; 2 = rarely; 3 = sometimes; 4 = always.

Google Doc (.gdoc) Microsoft Word (.docx) PDF Document (.pdf)

All Survey Questions

  1. How often do you feel that you are “in tune” with the people around you?
  2. How often do you feel that you lack companionship?
  3. How often do you feel that there is no one you can turn to?
  4. How often do you feel alone?
  5. How often do you feel part of a group of friends?
  6. How often do you feel that you have a lot in common with the people around you?
  7. How often do you feel that you are no longer close to anyone?
  8. How often do you feel that your interests and ideas are not shared by those around you?
  9. How often do you feel outgoing and friendly?
  10. How often do you feel close to people?
  11. How often do you feel left out?
  12. How often do you feel that your relationships with others are not meaningful?
  13. How often do you feel that no one really knows you well?
  14. How often do you feel isolated from others?
  15. How often do you feel that you can find companionship when you want it?
  16. How often do you feel that there are people who really understand you?
  17. How often do you feel shy?
  18. How often do you feel that people are around you but not with you?
  19. How often do you feel that there are people you can talk to?
  20. How often do you feel that there are people you can turn to?

Why It Matters

Studies show that people who have high scores on the UCLA Loneliness Scale tend to have trouble in other areas related to social mobility. For instance, people with higher loneliness scores have worse friendships and romantic relationships than do people with lower scores (Russell et al., 1994). Other studies suggest that poor relationships can be both a cause and an effect of poverty (Conger, Conger, & Martin, 2010).

Loneliness is also related to job burnout (Russell, 1996), chronic illnesses (Russell, 1996), physical inactivity (Hawkley, Thisted, & Cacioppo, 2009), and early death (Holt-Lunstad et al., 2015). Employment and health problems, in turn, hinder social mobility (Halleröd & Gustafsson, 2011).

In addition, a study in the United States found that having a good balance of sleep, work, time with family and friends, and “me time” is connected to being less lonely (Cigna, 2018). Yet balancing sleep, work, a social life, and personal time is more difficult for people in poverty (Adler & Newman, 2002). And so loneliness may both result from being in poverty and make it harder to get out of poverty.

HEADS UP

Researchers have used the UCLA Loneliness Scale in large survey studies that include people in poverty. But without careful experiments, researchers cannot tell for sure whether poverty causes loneliness, loneliness causes poverty, or some third force (such as a physical disability) causes both. Nevertheless, high-quality studies suggest that all these causal relationships are likely at play.

References

Adler, N. E., & Newman, K. (2002). Socioeconomic disparities in health: Pathways and policies. Health Affairs, 21(2), 60-76.

Barth, R. P., Schinke, S. P., & Maxwell, J. S. (1983). Psychological correlates of teenage motherhood. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 12(6), 471-487.

Cigna. (2018). Cigna U.S. loneliness index: Survey of 20,000 Americans examining behaviors driving loneliness in the United States. Retrieved from: https://www.multivu.com/players/English/8294451-cigna-us-loneliness-survey/

Conger, R. D., Conger, K. J., & Martin, M. J. (2010). Socioeconomic status, family processes, and individual development. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72(3), 685-704.

DeLiema, M., Gassoumis, Z. D., Homeier, D. C., & Wilber, K. H. (2012). Determining prevalence and correlates of elder abuse using promotores: Low‐income immigrant Latinos report high rates of abuse and neglect. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 60(7), 1333-1339.

Halleröd, B., & Gustafsson, J. E. (2011). A longitudinal analysis of the relationship between changes in socio-economic status and changes in health. Social Science & Medicine, 72(1), 116-123.

Hawkley, L. C., Thisted, R. A., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2009). Loneliness predicts reduced physical activity: Cross-sectional & longitudinal analyses. Health Psychology, 28(3), 354-363.

Holt-Lunstad, J., Smith, T. B., Baker, M., Harris, T., & Stephenson, D. (2015). Loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for mortality: A meta-analytic review. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(2), 227-237.

Kidd, S. A. (2007). Youth homelessness and social stigma. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 36(3), 291-299.

Russell, D. W. (1996). UCLA Loneliness Scale (Version 3): Reliability, validity, and factor structure. Journal of Personality Assessment, 66(1), 20-40.

Russell, D., Cutrona, C. E., Rose, J., & Yurko, K. (1984). Social and emotional loneliness: an examination of Weiss’s typology of loneliness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46(6), 1313-1321.