Loneliness

Summary

Loneliness has been measured in the SOEP since 2013 in four-year intervals using the 3-item short version of the UCLA loneliness scale developed by Hughes et al. (2004). In addition, loneliness has been assessed in both waves of the soep-cov survey.

Theoretical Background

Loneliness describes the perceived discrepancy between one’s desired and one’s actual relationships, in quantity and especially in quality (Peplau & Perlman 1982). Thus, loneliness is subjective and different from objective measures of social isolation. Loneliness increases the risk for morbidity and all-cause mortality (Hawkley & Cacioppo, 2010; Luo, Hawkley, Waite, & Cacioppo, 2012). In fact, according to a meta-analysis, the mortality risk of lonely people increases by 26 percent (Holt-Lunstad, Smith, Baker, Harris, & Stephenson, 2015). For these reasons, loneliness has been termed a major health risk by the world health organization and research on loneliness is of major interest to many disciplines in the social sciences.

Scale Development

The SOEP assesses loneliness using the 3-item short version of the UCLA loneliness scale (Russel, 1996) developed by Hughes et al (2004). The items were translated by into German by an bilingual expert. Details on the scale development and validation can be found in Hughes et al. (2004).

References

Hawkley, L. C., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2010). Loneliness matters: A theoretical and empirical review of consequences and mechanisms. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 40(2), 218-227.

Holt-Lunstad, J., Smith, T. B., Baker, M., Harris, T., & Stephenson, D. (2015). Loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for mortality: a meta-analytic review. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(2), 227-237.

Hughes, M. E., Waite, L. J., Hawkley, L. C., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2004). A short scale for measuring loneliness in large surveys: Results from two population-based studies. Research on Aging, 26(6), 655-672.

Luo, Y., Hawkley, L. C., Waite, L. J., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2012). Loneliness, health, and mortality in old age: A national longitudinal study. Social Science & Medicine, 74(6), 907-914.

Peplau, L. A., & Perlman, D. (1982). Perspectives on loneliness. In L. A. Peplau & D. Perlman (Eds.), Loneliness: A sourcebook of current theory, research and therapy (pp. 1-20). New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Russell, D. W. (1996). UCLA Loneliness Scale (Version 3): Reliability, validity, and factor structure. Journal of Personality Assessment, 66(1), 20-40.

Items

How often do you feel… (Wie oft haben Sie das Gefühl, …)

  1. that you lack companionship? (… dass Ihnen die Gesellschaft anderer fehlt?)

  2. left out? (… außen vor zu sein?)

  3. isolated from others? (… dass Sie sozial isoliert sind?)

Answers: 1 = very often (Sehr oft), 2 = often (Oft), 3 = sometimes (Manchmal), 4 = seldom (Selten), 5 = never (Nie); all items need to be reversed before forming the composite score.

Items and Scale Statistics

year

variable

count

mean

sd

itemrestcorr

alpha

2013

plj0587

25762

3.62

0.94

0.56

0.78

2013

plj0588

25684

3.96

0.89

0.68

0.78

2013

plj0589

25738

4.37

0.89

0.61

0.78

2016

plj0587

4281

3.07

1.34

0.54

0.78

2016

plj0588

4218

3.56

1.27

0.68

0.78

2016

plj0589

4260

3.67

1.31

0.62

0.78

2017

plj0587

29718

3.61

1.00

0.56

0.79

2017

plj0588

29632

3.92

0.96

0.68

0.79

2017

plj0589

29665

4.30

0.96

0.64

0.79

2018

plj0587

424

3.16

1.35

0.60

0.81

2018

plj0588

424

3.66

1.30

0.73

0.81

2018

plj0589

426

3.85

1.27

0.66

0.81

2019

plj0587

277

2.96

1.27

0.44

0.71

2019

plj0588

276

4.00

1.12

0.60

0.71

2019

plj0589

277

4.03

1.13

0.57

0.71