Scale library · Psychology & mental health
Three-item loneliness scale: Hughes et al. (2004)
Hughes, Waite, Hawkley and Cacioppo (2004) took 3 items from the 20-item Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale to measure loneliness in large surveys where there is no time for a long scale. The items ask about lacking companionship, feeling left out and feeling isolated from others. In two US population studies the scale reached an alpha of .72 and correlated highly with the 20-item version. It suits theses on students living away from home, older adults and remote workers, or as an outcome of social media use.
Cite the original, not the blog.
- Model or scale: Three-item loneliness scale
- Constructs: 1
- Items: 3
Original English items
Items marked (R) are reverse-coded: recode them before computing reliability or scale scores. Replace bracketed placeholders such as [system] with the name of the system, brand or organization you study.
Loneliness (LON, 3 items)
| Code | Item wording | Reverse-coded |
|---|---|---|
| LON1 | First, how often do you feel that you lack companionship: Hardly ever, some of the time, or often? | No |
| LON2 | How often do you feel left out: Hardly ever, some of the time, or often? | No |
| LON3 | How often do you feel isolated from others? (Is it hardly ever, some of the time, or often?) | No |
Response scale
3-point frequency scale, not an agreement scale: 1 = Hardly ever, 2 = Some of the time, 3 = Often. Summing the 3 items gives 3–9; higher scores mean more loneliness. There are no reverse-coded items.
Licence and permission
The three items are published in Hughes et al. (2004), whose full text is free on PubMed Central. The article states no specific terms of use; cite the original article when you use them in research.
Sources (APA 7)
- Hughes, M. E., Waite, L. J., Hawkley, L. C., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2004). A short scale for measuring loneliness in large surveys: Results from two population-based studies. Research on Aging, 26(6), 655–672. https://doi.org/10.1177/0164027504268574
- Russell, D., Peplau, L. A., & Cutrona, C. E. (1980). The revised UCLA Loneliness Scale: Concurrent and discriminant validity evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39(3), 472–480. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.39.3.472
Vietnamese translation
A Vietnamese translation of every item, with sample-size advice and studies that used the scale, is on the Vietnamese page for this scale.