Stony Brook University, NY, USA.
University of Denver, CO, USA.
Assessment. 2023 Apr;30(3):706-727. doi: 10.1177/10731911211065167. Epub 2021 Dec 28.
Youth loneliness is a risk factor for myriad adverse psychosocial outcomes, making it a potentially informative construct for assessment and treatment research. Minority stressors may place LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) youths at high risk of loneliness. However, the prevalence of loneliness across gender and sexual identities cannot be precisely estimated or compared without establishing that common measures assess the construct equivalently across groups. In a preregistered study, we determined the optimal structure of the UCLA Loneliness Scale and investigated whether it showed invariance across gender and sexual identities in a national U.S. sample of adolescents with elevated depressive symptoms ( = 2,431; https://osf.io/52ctd). Results supported strict invariance, indicating that loneliness scores can be meaningfully compared across groups in this sample. Exploratory analyses indicated that loneliness levels and LGBTQ+ identity predicted levels of depression and anxiety. We discuss implications for research on loneliness, health disparities, and psychopathology in high-symptom youths.
青年孤独感是众多不良心理社会后果的一个风险因素，因此它是评估和治疗研究中一个潜在的有用结构。少数群体的压力源可能使 LGBTQ+（女同性恋、男同性恋、双性恋、跨性别和酷儿）青年面临高度孤独的风险。然而，如果不能确定常见的测量方法在不同群体中是否能同样评估结构，就无法准确估计或比较跨越性别和性身份的孤独感的普遍性。在一项预先注册的研究中，我们确定了加州大学洛杉矶分校孤独量表的最佳结构，并研究了在一个具有较高抑郁症状的美国青少年全国样本中（n=2431；https://osf.io/52ctd），该量表是否在性别和性身份上具有不变性。结果支持严格不变性，表明在该样本中，孤独感评分可以在群体之间进行有意义的比较。探索性分析表明，孤独感水平和 LGBTQ+身份预测了抑郁和焦虑水平。我们讨论了这对高症状青少年的孤独感、健康差距和精神病理学研究的意义。
