Analysis of the psychometric properties of the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale in a Polish adolescent sample

Abstract

The current study examines the psychometric properties of the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale (R-UCLA): Structural validity, reliability and external validity. We conducted a study on a sample of 247 high school students, all aged 16. In order to verify the hypotheses, scales measuring feelings of loneliness, shyness and self-esteem were administered. As a result of confirmatory factor analyses, it was demonstrated that the structure of the R-UCLA is three-factorial, the factors being as follows: (1) intimate others, referring to the feeling of exclusion; (2) social others, referring to the lack of closeness and support in relationships; and (3) belonging and affiliation, referring to the lack of community bonds - all of which are reliable in their measurement, as is the total score of the R-UCLA. Moreover, we demonstrated that the feeling of loneliness is positively related to shyness and negatively related to self-esteem. The obtained results support using the R-UCLA among Polish adolescents.