Fuhrmann Delia, Riddleston Laura, Verity Lily, Alam Iqra, Chavez Lizet, Conway Jasmine, Niaz Amilah, Pollmann Ayla, Qualter Pamela, Spowage Poppy, Turner Lauren, Walibhai Wahida, Lau Jennifer Y F
King's College London, London, UK
Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.
BMJ Open. 2025 Jul 22;15(7):e097497. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-097497.
The high prevalence of loneliness in young people, aged 10-24 years, is increasingly recognised as an urgent global health concern. The experience of loneliness is linked to a wide range of adverse physical and mental health outcomes. A lack of loneliness scales that can accurately capture the authentic experiences of young people has hampered progress in our understanding of the aetiology and sequelae of youth loneliness, as well as the development of preventative policies and interventions. Here, we provide a protocol for developing and validating an age-sensitive loneliness scale for young people aged 10-24 years: the Youth Loneliness Scale (YLS). The scale is designed to measure loneliness in the general population of young people in the UK.
The scale is coproduced with young people from design to dissemination. The scale development process follows a three-phased, multistep approach that includes item development, scale construction and scale evaluation. Item development is achieved via deductive (literature review) and inductive methods (arts workshops and focus groups), as well as a Delphi survey of experts (by profession and experience) for initial refinement. The scale is then constructed via pretesting items in cognitive interviews with young people, and exploratory testing for preliminary evaluation and refinement. Finally, the scale is administered in confirmatory testing, where a full psychometric evaluation is provided.
The project was approved by the Queen Mary University of London Research Ethics Committee (Reference: 2024-0231-341) as the lead site and subsequently endorsed by the University of Manchester Research Ethics Committee. The YLS scale and results of its psychometric evaluation will be published open-access. The protocol provided here will allow researchers to evaluate the final scale generated against the plans set out. We also encourage the use and adaptation of the protocol to develop age-sensitive loneliness scales for other populations.
10至24岁年轻人中孤独感的高患病率日益被视为一个紧迫的全球健康问题。孤独体验与一系列不良身心健康后果相关。缺乏能够准确捕捉年轻人真实体验的孤独感量表，阻碍了我们对青少年孤独感的病因和后果的理解，以及预防政策和干预措施的制定。在此，我们提供了一个针对10至24岁年轻人开发和验证一个对年龄敏感的孤独感量表的方案：青少年孤独感量表（YLS）。该量表旨在测量英国年轻人群体中的孤独感。
该量表从设计到传播都与年轻人共同制作。量表开发过程遵循三个阶段、多步骤的方法，包括项目开发、量表构建和量表评估。项目开发通过演绎法（文献综述）和归纳法（艺术工作坊和焦点小组），以及对专家（按专业和经验）进行德尔菲调查进行初步完善来实现。然后通过在与年轻人的认知访谈中对项目进行预测试，以及进行探索性测试以进行初步评估和完善来构建量表。最后，在验证性测试中实施该量表，在此提供全面的心理测量评估。
该项目作为牵头站点获得了伦敦玛丽女王大学研究伦理委员会的批准（参考编号：2024 - 0231 - 341），随后得到了曼彻斯特大学研究伦理委员会的认可。YLS量表及其心理测量评估结果将以开放获取的方式发表。此处提供的方案将使研究人员能够根据既定计划评估最终生成的量表。我们还鼓励使用和改编该方案，为其他人群开发对年龄敏感的孤独感量表。
