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Review
. 2022 Aug 30;19(17):10816.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph191710816.

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

Marlies Maes  1 , Pamela Qualter  2 , Gerine M A Lodder  3 , Marcus Mund  4
Affiliations
Review

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

Marlies Maes et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

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.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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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.

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