Twenty questions about how often you feel connected to or isolated from other people. The result describes subjective experience, not how many contacts you have or whether something is “wrong” with you.
Method and research sourcesVersion 3 measures subjective loneliness and perceived social isolation through both positively and negatively worded experiences of closeness, belonging, understanding, and support.
Responses are scored from 1 to 4. Ten connection-focused items are reverse-scored and all 20 values are summed, producing a total from 20 to 80; higher scores reflect greater loneliness.
The official UCLA page, the Version 3 validation paper, and a systematic review of cross-cultural adaptations are listed below.
UCLA — Anne Peplau
S. Zarei, M. Memari, S. Moshayedi, P. Shayestehfar
Resources are selected by the loneliness and connection topic, not by your score.
Learn how loneliness differs from social isolation, why it can persist in company, and how to decide whether group therapy is a suitable next step.
Address changes in professional status, language fatigue, guilt and loneliness after emigration, and choose support that fits your country and circumstances.
Explore six different ways loneliness may be experienced with E. A. Manakova's 30-item questionnaire.
Explore attachment-related anxiety and avoidance in romantic relationships with the 36-item Experiences in Close Relationships–Revised.
Complete the 17-item Social Phobia Inventory for fear, avoidance, and physical symptoms during the past week.
No. The scale describes subjective loneliness and does not diagnose a mental disorder.
Yes. Loneliness concerns the quality and fit of connection, not simply the number of people nearby.
Items about connection are reverse-scored so that a higher total consistently represents more loneliness.
