UCLA Loneliness Scale
Developed by psychologist Daniel Russell (1996), the UCLA Loneliness Scale (Version 3) is a 20-item measure that assesses how often a person feels disconnected from others.
Researchers have used this measure with many different groups, including homeless youth (Kidd, 2007), teen mothers (Barth, Schinke, & Maxwell, 1983), and Latino immigrants living on a low income (DeLiema, Gassoumis, Homier, & Wilber, 2012).
INSTRUCTIONS
Using a 4-point rating scale (1= never; 4 = always), participants answer 20 questions, such as “How often do you feel left out?” and “How often do you feel part of a group of friends?” Researchers later reverse-code the positively worded items so that high values mean more loneliness, and then calculate a score for each respondent by averaging their ratings.