This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Pretorius, T. B. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

The Metric Equivalence of the Ucla Loneliness Scale for a Sample of South African Students

University of Western Cape, Private Bag X17, Bellville, 7530 South Africa

This article reports on the psychometric properties of the UCLA Loneliness Scale employed with a sample of South African students. Respondents consisted of 659 undergraduate students (39.4% males, 60.6% females) at the University of Western Cape, South Africa. The mean loneliness score for this group was slightly higher than those reported for North American college students, and slightly lower than those reported for Puerto Rican and Iranian students. This finding is consistent with previously reported cross- cultural variability in the experience of loneliness. Size of house- hold was significantly related to loneliness score which would suggest that the family plays a role in the experience of loneliness. The scale demonstrated adequate reliability (coefficient alpha = .81) and factor analysis confirmed the unidimensionality of the scale for this sample. Tests for sex differences indicated that males reported more loneliness than females which are also consistent with previous studies. The obtained results underline the utility of the UCLA Loneliness Scale for use with South African students.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				R. M. Page, J. Yanagishita, J. Suwanteerangkul, E. P. Zarco, C. Mei-Lee, and N.-F. Miao Hopelessness and Loneliness Among Suicide Attempters in School-Based Samples of Taiwanese, Philippine and Thai Adolescents School Psychology International, December 1, 2006; 27(5): 583 - 598. [Abstract] [PDF]