Affective Judgement of a Sense of Social Connection: A Scale Refinement Process

Abstract

Social connection is a multidimensional construct approached in various ways, leading to fragmented measurement and ineffective modelling of its dimensions. This study utilised a strengths-based framework to examine items that capture an individual’s affective judgement of their sense of connection within a national population setting. A representative Australian panel (n = 927) was surveyed to explore the relationships among affective categories and items in existing social connection surveys and frameworks. The findings provide a strengths-based refined scale, demonstrating that the affective dimension is a higher-order factor, reflected by subdimensions including a sense of closeness, safety/comfort, acceptance, belonging, and an overall sense of connection. Findings demonstrate this affective dimension is related to, but distinct from, social support and the Lee and Robbins (1995) Social Connectedness Scale. This study contributes to the refinement and conceptualisation of the 'affective dimension' as it pertains to social connection, which can help to enable comparisons between studies, populations, and programs for academics and practitioners.