How (Not) to Measure Loneliness: A Review of the Eight Most Commonly Used Scales

Marlies Maes; Pamela Qualter; Gerine M A Lodder; Marcus Mund

doi:10.3390/ijerph191710816

How (Not) to Measure Loneliness: A Review of the Eight Most Commonly Used Scales

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Aug 30;19(17):10816. doi: 10.3390/ijerph191710816.

Authors

Marlies Maes¹, Pamela Qualter², Gerine M A Lodder³, Marcus Mund⁴

Affiliations

¹ Interdisciplinary Social Science: Youth Studies, Utrecht University, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands.
² Manchester Institute of Education, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
³ Department of Developmental Psychology, Tilburg University, 5037 AB Tilburg, The Netherlands.
⁴ Personality Psychology and Psychological Assessment, Klagenfurt University, 9020 Klagenfurt, Austria.

Abstract

Loneliness affects well-being and has long-term negative impacts on physical and mental health, educational outcomes, and employability. Because of those current and long-term impacts, loneliness is a significant issue for which we need reliable and appropriate measurement scales. In the current paper, psychometric properties of the eight most commonly used loneliness scales are reviewed both descriptively and meta-analytically. Results suggest that for many of the scales, the psychometric properties are promising. However, for some psychometric features, especially test-retest reliability and measurement invariance, evidence is rather scarce. Most striking, however, is the fact that all of the scales included items that do not measure loneliness. Surprisingly, for many (sub)scales, this was even the case for about half of the items. Because our measures are the foundation of our research work, it is crucial to improve the way loneliness is being measured.

Keywords: factor structure; loneliness; loneliness types; measurement; measurement invariance; psychometrics; reliability.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Educational Status
Loneliness* / psychology
Psychometrics
Reproducibility of Results
Surveys and Questionnaires

Grants and funding

This research was funded by a Postdoctoral fellowship fundamental research (M.M.) of the Research Foundation—Flanders, grant number 1200618N, and by a Veni grant (G.L.) of the Dutch Research Council, grant number 016.Veni.195.186.