Adaptation of the short-form of the UCLA loneliness scale (ULS-8) to turkish for the adolescents

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study is to adapt short form of the UCLA Loneliness Scale (ULS-8) to Turkish and investigate the validity and reliability of the scale for Turkish adolescents. Method: The participants in this study were 293 high school students aged between 14 and 19. Among the participants 110 (37.5%) were male, 183 (62.5%) were female and mean age was found to be 15.85 (SS=1.20). Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used to evaluate the construct validity of the scale. In order to check criterion validity of Turkish version of the ULS-8 scale, the General Belongingness Scale, and the Life Satisfaction Scale were used. For reliability of Turkish version of the ULS-8, average variance extracted (AVE), composit reliability, Cronbach alpha level and test-retest correlation were computed. Results: The factor analysis resulted in one factor. Factor loadings of the items varied between 0.31 and 0.71. All of the fit indices indicated a good-fit model for the ULS-8. Criterion-related validity analysis revealed that there were significant relationships between loneliness and the general belongingness (r=-0.71), life satisfaction (r=-0.42). The results also showed that internal consistency coefficients of the factors were highly satisfactory for whole scale ?=0.74. Test-retest reliability scales was found to be (r=0.84, p<0.001) on a sample of 64 high school students in a period of two weeks. Conclusion: Findings suggested that the Turkish version of the ULS-8 was found a valid and reliable instrument for Turkish adolescents.