The De Jong Gierveld short scales for emotional and social loneliness: tested on data from 7 countries in the UN generations and gender surveys

Abstract

Loneliness concerns the subjective evaluation of the situation individuals are involved in, characterized either by a number of relationships with friends and colleagues which is smaller than is considered desirable (social loneliness), as well as situations where the intimacy in confidant relationships one wishes for has not been realized (emotional loneliness). To identify people who are lonely direct questions are not sufficient; loneliness scales are preferred. In this article, the quality of the three-item scale for emotional loneliness and the three-item scale for social loneliness has been investigated for use in the following countries participating in the United Nations “Generations and Gender Surveys”: France, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Bulgaria, Georgia, and Japan. Sample sizes for the 7 countries varied between 8,158 and 12,828. Translations of the De Jong Gierveld loneliness scale have been tested using reliability and validity tests including a confirmatory factor analysis to test the two-dimensional structure of loneliness. Test outcomes indicated for each of the countries under investigation reliable and valid scales for emotional and social loneliness, respectively.

Living arrangements, intergenerational support types and older adult loneliness in Eastern and Western Europe

“…An issue of debate is whether cross-national differences reflect real differences or cultural differences in the way people rate their experiences (Bolle and Kemp 2009;Vuorisalmi et al 2008). We lean towards the latter, given that the loneliness-measuring instrument used in the GGS has proven cross-national equivalence (De Jong Gierveld and Van Tilburg 2010). The reliability, validity and structural characteristics of the scale are of high quality and allow intercultural comparison.…”

“…(For more information about the scale and the scoring procedures see the Appendix). The scale has proven to be reliable and valid for each of the countries under investigation (De Jong Gierveld and Van Tilburg, 2010). Scale reliability (as measured by Cronbach's alpha or rho) usually falls in the 0.80 to 0.90 range.…”

Loneliness and depression among the elderly in an agricultural settlement: Mediating effects of social support

“…For instance, the social loneliness of the De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale measures items on the network of social relationship that the person is part of, that shares common interests and activities (De Jong-Gierveld & Tilburg, 2010). Therefore, their experience of loneliness might have predicted how they perceived the social support that they received, whether tangible, emotional/ informational, affective or positive, that were assessed using the MOS Social Survey.…”

Medo de ficar solteiro: evidências psicométricas e de validade de uma medida

“…Como esperado, a correlação com solidão emocional apresentou maior magnitude do que a com solidão social. Este tipo de solidão é caracterizado pela falta de um relacionamento mais íntimo, como um parceiro romântico, enquanto a solidão social refere-se mais aos grupos de interesse do indivíduo, como vizinhança ou colegas de trabalho (Jong-Gierveld & Tilburg, 2010). Sendo assim, uma maior solidão emocional poderia levar o indivíduo a vivenciar um maior medo em relação ao futuro de seus relacionamentos íntimos.…”

“…Corroborando com os autores, Guerra, Scarpati, Brasil, Livramento e Silva (2015) demonstraram que a restrição emocional para os homens é associada à estabilidade pessoal e sobrevivência nos grupos dos quais fazem parte, pois a expressividade das emoções pode ser entendida como uma ameaça à masculinidade. Além disso, pesquisas têm demonstrado que as mulheres tendem a vivenciar de forma mais intensa a solidão emocional do que os homens (Jong-Gierveld & Tilburg, 2010;Pinquart & Sorensen, 2001), tipo de solidão que apresentou correlação positiva signifi cativa e de média magnitude com o medo de solidão no segundo estudo, o que pode ajudar a explicar o maior medo apresentado.…”