Loneliness and Social Dissatisfaction Questionnaire

Abstract

The Loneliness and Social Dissatisfaction Questionnaire (LSDQ), developed by Steven R. Asher and Valerie A. Wheeler in the early 1980s, is a self-report psychological scale designed to assess chronic feelings of loneliness and perceived social dissatisfaction among school-aged children. This instrument moves beyond simple sociometric measurements by capturing the subjective experience of feeling alone or lacking satisfying peer relationships within the school environment. The scale typically consists of 24 items, including core loneliness items and filler items related to hobbies or interests, which help mask the scale’s primary purpose and reduce response bias.

The LSDQ is widely recognized in developmental psychology research for its focus on the discrepancy model of loneliness—the difference between a child’s desired social relationships and their actual social situation. It has been instrumental in distinguishing between different forms of social maladjustment, such as children who are actively rejected by peers versus those who are merely neglected.

Keywords

Loneliness, social dissatisfaction, childhood, peer relations, sociometric assessment, developmental psychology, social adjustment, peer rejection, psychological assessment.

Authors

Steven R. Asher, Valerie A. Wheeler

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Loneliness and Social Dissatisfaction Questionnaire is to provide a reliable and valid measure of children’s subjective feelings of loneliness experienced specifically within the school context. It was created to differentiate children who feel genuinely lonely from those who may simply be shy or socially isolated but content with their level of social interaction. By using a self-report format, the scale captures the child’s internal state and perception of their peer relationships, which is often considered more critical for mental health outcomes than objective peer status alone.

The scale helps researchers and clinicians identify children at risk for long-term social and emotional difficulties stemming from poor peer relationships. The inclusion of filler items serves to reduce the transparency of the scale, thereby increasing the likelihood that children provide honest and accurate self-assessments regarding their social functioning.

Construct

The LSDQ primarily measures the construct of loneliness as defined by the subjective perception of insufficient or unsatisfying social relationships. Asher and Wheeler conceptualized this not merely as a lack of friends, but as a painful awareness of a deficit in the quality or quantity of one’s social connections. The construct is considered relatively stable, reflecting a chronic feeling rather than a transient emotional state.

The scale consists of two types of items: core loneliness items (which focus on feelings of being alone, being left out, or lacking companionship) and filler items (which focus on general interests and activities). The core items tap into specific components of social relationships, including feelings of being unwanted, dissatisfaction with friendships, and difficulty making new friends, often linked to experiences of peer rejection or neglect.

Validity

The Loneliness and Social Dissatisfaction Questionnaire has demonstrated strong evidence of validity across numerous studies since its inception. Construct validity is supported by the scale’s ability to discriminate between children classified sociometrically as rejected or neglected and those who are popular or average. Lonely children, as identified by the LSDQ, tend to show higher levels of internalizing problems, lower self-esteem, and poorer academic adjustment compared to non-lonely children.

Convergent validity has been established through positive correlations with other measures of social distress, anxiety, and depression. Conversely, discriminant validity is demonstrated by low correlations with measures of general personality traits or intelligence, confirming that the scale is specifically measuring the unique construct of social dissatisfaction and loneliness, rather than global maladjustment or mood. Early validation studies, such as those by Asher, Hymel, and Renshaw (1984), confirmed that the scale successfully captured the subjective experience of loneliness independent of peer popularity.

Reliability

The LSDQ exhibits high levels of internal consistency, which is the standard measure of reliability for this type of psychological scale. Across various samples of school-aged children, the scale consistently yields high Cronbach’s alpha coefficients, typically ranging from 0.88 to 0.92 for the total loneliness score. This high alpha value indicates that the items measuring loneliness are highly correlated and reliably measure a single underlying construct.

Furthermore, the scale has shown acceptable test-retest reliability over short intervals (e.g., 3 to 6 weeks), suggesting that the construct of chronic loneliness measured by the LSDQ is a stable characteristic in children. The reliability holds true across different age groups within the target population, making it a robust instrument for repeated measurement in longitudinal studies.

Factor Analysis

Early factor analysis of the LSDQ typically supported a primary, strong unidimensional factor structure, reflecting a general sense of loneliness and social dissatisfaction. Although the scale contains items covering various facets of social life (e.g., lack of companionship, difficulty making friends, feeling left out), these facets tend to load heavily onto a single underlying factor representing the core experience of chronic social deficiency.

Some subsequent research has explored potential sub-factors, such as “Social Isolation” versus “Emotional Distress,” but the common practice remains to use the total score as the most reliable indicator of a child’s overall level of loneliness. The exclusion of the “filler” items (hobby/interest items) is essential for maintaining the integrity of the loneliness score calculation, as these items are included purely for psychometric masking rather than contributing to the measured construct.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report psychological scale (Psychometric Instrument)

Format: 24 total items (16 core items, 8 filler items) presented with a 5-point Likert scale response format.

Language Available: Primarily English; translated versions exist for research purposes.

Population Group: Children and adolescents.

Age Group: Typically utilized with elementary and middle school students (Grades 3 through 6 or ages 8 to 12).

Population Details: Originally standardized on non-clinical populations of school children to study the relationship between sociometric status (e.g., peer rejection) and subjective feelings of loneliness.

Test Methodology: Respondents rate the extent to which each statement is true for them using the following categories: Always true, true most of the time, sometimes true, hardly ever true, or not at all true. Items marked with an asterisk are reverse-scored.

Keywords

Self-report, children, psychometrics, social skills, internalizing problems, peer status, Likert scale, social isolation, emotional assessment.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A (ORCID was not standard practice at the time of publication, and specific identifiers are not readily available for this entry.)

Affiliation Email addresses: N/A (Contact details for the authors would be available through their respective university psychology departments, e.g., Steven R. Asher at Duke University.)

Correspondence Address: N/A (Original correspondence was likely through the authors’ institutional addresses in the 1980s.)

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The original publications describing the scale were released in 1983 and 1984. The scale is widely used in academic and clinical research and is generally considered to be in the public domain for non-commercial research and clinical use, provided proper attribution is given to Asher and Wheeler. Formal fees for use are generally not required for academic research, though researchers should always check the most recent policies of the authors or relevant publishing bodies.

The original PDF describing the instrument and its validation can be downloaded here: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED237229.pdf. Further seminal work is available via these links: https://www.ecu.edu/cs-cas/psyc/upload/Asher-Hymel-Renshaw-1984.pdf and http://successforkidswithhearingloss.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Childrens-Loneliness-and-Social-Dissatisfaction-Scale1.pdf.

Reference’s

The following references document the development and validation of the Children’s Loneliness and Social Dissatisfaction Scale (LSDQ):

• Asher‚ Steven R.‚ & Wheeler‚ Valerie A. (1983). Children’s Loneliness: A Comparison of Rejected and Neglected Peer Status. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association (91st‚ Anaheim‚ CA‚ August 26- 30).
• Asher‚ S. R.‚ Hymel‚ S.‚ & Renshaw‚ R.D. (1984). Loneliness in children. Child Development‚ 55(4)‚ 1456-1464.
• Asher‚ S. R.‚ & Wheeler‚ V A. (1985). Children’s loneliness: A comparison of rejected and neglected peer status. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology‚ 53(4)‚ 500-507.
• Asher‚ S. R.‚ & Coie‚ J. D. (Eds.). (1990). Peer rejection in childhood. Cambridge‚ England: Cambridge University Press.
• Asher‚ S. R.‚ Parkhurst. J. T‚ Hymel‚ S.‚ & Williams‚ G. A. (1990). Peer rejection and loneliness in childhood. In S. R. Asher & J. D. Coie (Eds.)‚ Peer rejection in childhood (pp. 253-273).
• Cassidy‚ J.‚ & Asher‚ S. (1992). Loneliness and peer relations in young children. Child Development‚ 63‚ 350-365.

Items of the Loneliness and Social Dissatisfaction Questionnaire

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

The core items measure loneliness and social dissatisfaction, while items 2, 5, 7, 11, 13, 15, 19, and 23 are “Filler” items related to hobby or interest.

1. It’s easy for me to make new friends at school.
2. I like to read.
3. I have nobody to talk to in class.*
4. I’m good at working with other children in my class.
5. I watch TV a lot.
6. It’s hard for me to make friends at school.*
7. I like school.
8. I have lots of friends in my class.
9. I feel alone at school.*
10. I can find a friend in my class when I need one.
11. I play sports a lot.
12. It’s hard to get kids in school to like me.*
13. I like science.
14. I don’t have anyone to play with at school.*
15. I like music.
16. I get along with my classmates.
17. I feel left out of things at school.*
18. There are no other kids I can go to when I need help at school.*
19. I like to paint and draw.
20. I don’t get along with other children in school.*
21. I’m lonely at school.*
22. I am well liked by the kids in my class.
23. I like playing board games a lot.
24. I don’t have any friends in class.*

Note: Items marked with an asterisk (*) are reverse-scored during analysis.