Construction and Psychometric Properties of the Loneliness Scale in Adults

RESEARCH ARTICLE Construction and Psychometric Properties of the Loneliness Scale in Adults Construcción y propiedades psicométricas de la Escala de Soledad en adultos Vol 12, N◦ 2 https://revistas.usb.edu.co/index.php/IJPR ISSN 2011-2084 E-ISSN 2011-7922 OPEN ACCESS Editor: Jorge Mauricio Cuartas Arias, Universidad de San Buenaventura, Medellín, Colombia Manuscript received: Revised: Accepted: ? Corresponding author: Sofía E. Auné 577 Virrey Liniers Street (15th floor, apartment B), Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Postal Code 1220. Email: Copyright: ©2019. International Journal of Psychological Research provides open access to all its contents under the terms of the license creative commons Attribution-NonCommercialNoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NCND 4.0) Declaration of data availability: All relevant data are within the article, as well as the information support files. Conflict of interests: The authors have declared that there is no conflict of interest. Sofía E. Auné1,2? , Facundo J.P. Abal1,2 , Horacio F. Attorresi1 1 Instituto de Investigaciones de la Facultad de Psicología de la Universidad de Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires, Argentina. 2 Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET). Argentina. Abstract. The development procedure and the psychometric properties of the Buenos Aires Loneliness Scale (BALS) are presented. An initial set of 40 items was analyzed by means of the expert judgment method. After that, the 16 selected items were administered to a convenience sample comprised of 509 adult participants (53% of which were female). The Argentine version of the UCLA-LS (University of California Los Angeles Loneliness Scale), the Argentine version of the Balanced Inventory of Socially Desirable Responding, and loneliness self-perception questions were applied in conjunction with the BALS. Exploratory factor analysis showed evidence of unidimensionality, with an adequate internal consistency (alpha=.80, ordinal alpha=.87), and seven items were kept. Correlations with the criterion measures yielded the expected results and no gender-based differential item functioning was found. Conclusions were reached about the adequate psychometric properties of the BALS, the limitations of the present study, and the goals for future research. Resumen. Se presenta el procedimiento de construcción y las propiedades psicométricas de la escala de Soledad de Buenos Aires (ESBA). Se depuró un conjunto inicial de 40 ítems con el método de jueces expertos. Luego, los 16 reactivos conservados fueron administrados a una muestra por accesibilidad de 509 participantes adultos (53% fueron mujeres). Se aplicó en conjunto con la ESBA, la versión argentina de la Escala de Soledad de Los Ángeles California (UCLA-LS), la Versión Argentina del Inventario Balanceado de Respuestas Socialmente Deseables y preguntas de autopercepción de la soledad. El Análisis Factorial Exploratorio mostró evidencias de unidimensionalidad, con una consistencia interna adecuada (alfa=.80; alfa ordinal=.87) y se conservaron siete ítems. Las correlaciones con las medidas criterio arrojaron resultados esperables y no se halló funcionamiento diferencial del ítem por género. Se concluyó acerca de las adecuadas propiedades psicométricas de la ESBA, las limitaciones del presente estudio y metas para futuras investigaciones. Keywords. Loneliness, Self-Perception of Social Isolation, Test Construction Palabras Clave. Soledad, aislamiento social autopercibido, construcción de tests int.j.psychol.res | doi:10.21500/20112084.4257 82 Loneliness Scale 1. Introduction Social isolation can be defined on the basis of objective and subjective circumstances, and both need to be taken into account. Objective Social Isolation (OSI) refers to the lack of meaningful relationships with other people (De Jong Gierveld, van Tilburg, & Dykstra, 2016). Perceived Social Isolation (PSI), a synonym of loneliness, refers to the distressing subjective experience resulting from the discrepancy between the expected social relationships and the actual ones (Perlman & Peplau, 1981), although many definitions have been proposed for this concept. Both OSI and PSI are considered to be different constructs (e.g. Perissinotto & Covinsky, 2014), as not all individuals with a limited or nonexistent social network necessarily feel lonely and, by the same logic, loneliness can be experienced despite the existence of an actual social network (De Jong Gierveld et al., 2016). It is loneliness that more strongly relates to the quality and quantity of social interactions (Hawkley et al., 2008). A person who perceives oneself as socially isolated will suffer from greater disease prevalence and will have a lower life expectancy (Holt-Lunstad, Smith, Baker, Harris, & Stephenson, 2015). Among the diseases that are associated with loneliness we can find: Alzheimer’s disease (Wilson et al., 2007), cardiovascular disorders (Caspi, Harrington, Moffitt, Milne, & Poulton, 2006; Hawkley, Thisted, Masi, & Cacioppo, 2010; Herlitz et al., 1998; Sorkin, Rook, & Lu, 2002), and cancer (Antoni et al., 2006; Nausheen, Gidron, Peveler, & Moss-Morris, 2009). In addition, loneliness is associated with an increased risk of experiencing depressive symptoms, ideation, and suicide attempts (e.g. Van Orden et al., 2010) more strongly than OSI. Significant social bonds, on the other hand, are positively related to happiness (Auné, Abal, & Attorresi, 2017a, 2017b). De Jong Gierveld et al. (2016) explore three major theoretical approaches to the social isolation phenomenon. First, the deficit theory (Weiss, 1973; Mikulincer & Shaver, 2008) postulates that the absence of specific social relationships gives rise to particular types of loneliness. This theory contributes Weiss (1973) classification of loneliness into two types, which is still valid today to understand this phenomenon (De Jong Gierveld et al., 2016). Weiss differentiated between emotional loneliness, determined by the absence of a source of close emotional support, like a partner or a best friend, and social loneliness, characterized by the absence of a large group of contacts or of membership to a social group, such as friends, colleagues or neighbors. Perlman and Peplau initially proposed the second theory (1981). It postulates that the quantitative and objective lack of social relationships does not directly and inevitably lead to loneliness. The subjective evaluation of relationships and of expectations with respect to such relationships would influence the perception of int.j.psychol.res | doi: 10.21500/20112084.4257 loneliness. For example, Russell, Cutrona, McRae, and Gomez (2012) have recently found out that those who claimed to have fewer friendship relationships than desired were more prone to experiencing loneliness. A third theory is based on the evolutionary approach and it postulates the existence of a genetic influence on loneliness (Cacioppo et al., 2006). From thi (...truncated)