Loneliness Scale (LS)

The short form of the Loneliness Scale measures subjective social isolation (section: mental health), which is defined as a situation experienced by the participant as one where there is an unpleasant or inadmissible lack of (quality of) certain relationships. It includes situations where the number of existing relationships is smaller than desirable or acceptable, as well as situations where the intimacy wished for has not been realized1).
A manual to analyze the scale can be found here. The scale is used widely in the Netherlands (the original scale is Dutch) but also internationally and has shown good psychometric properties for overall, emotional, and social loneliness that is suitable for large surveys2).

Questions English Questions Dutch Code Variable Assessment Age
i experience an emptiness around me ik ervaar een leegte om me heen loneliness_emptiness_adu_q_01 LONELYSC1 2B ACTQ 18+
i miss people around me ik mis mensen om me heen loneliness_people_adu_q_02 LONELYSC2 2B ACTQ 18+
i often feel abandoned vaak voel ik me in de steek gelaten loneliness_abandoned_adu_q_03 LONELYSC3 2B ACTQ 18+
i have enough people to fall back on in case of adversity er zijn genoeg mensen op wie ik in geval van narigheid kan terugvallen loneliness_fallback_adu_q_04 LONELYSC4 2B ACTQ 18+
i have many people that i can fully trust ik heb veel mensen op wie ik volledig kan vertrouwen loneliness_trust_adu_q_05 LONELYSC5 2B ACTQ 18+
there are enough people that i feel closely connected to er zijn voldoende mensen met wie ik me nauw verbonden voel loneliness_connection_adu_q_06 LONELYSC6 2B ACTQ 18+
1)
De Jong Gierveld, J. (1989) Personal relationships, social support, and loneliness. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 6, 197-221
2)
De Jong Gierveld, J. & Van Tilburg, T. (2006). A 6-item scale for overall, emotional, and social loneliness: confirmatory tests on survey data. Research on Aging, 28, 582-598