Developing the University of the Philippines Loneliness Assessment Scale: A Cross-Cultural Measurement

As the existing scales to measure loneliness are almost all Western and there is no single scale developed cross-culturally for this purpose, this study is designed to develop a reliable and valid scale to measure the experience of loneliness of individuals from individualistic or collectivistic cultures. There are three samples for this study with a total of 495 male and female international (n = 202) and local (n = 293) participants (Age range 19–60 years). An initial pool of 70 item scale was administered to a sample of 202 participants (20–60 years old) from 41 countries of the world with collectivistic and individualistic cultures and the data was subjected to factor analysis using principal component extraction. Evidence shows a unidimensional factor loading. The extracted items were subjected to reliability test and 25 items were obtained for the final scale of the UP Loneliness Assessment Scale (UPLAS) with a Cronbach alpha of .93. Further analyses show the following findings: UPLAS has a significant correlation with R-UCLA Loneliness Scale providing evidence for its moderate concurrent validity; there is a significant and inverse relationship between the measures of UPLAS and Subjective Happiness Scale establishing its higher discriminant validity; UPLAS scores are significantly correlated with the measures of negative self-perceptions, depression, and several emotional states associated to loneliness and thus establishing a higher convergent validity. The designing of the UP Loneliness Assessment Scale as a cross-cultural measurement tool may contribute to more research interests in the domain of “negative perceptions” as the most contributing factor to loneliness across cultures.