Social isolation: development and validation of measures
Benchmarking: An International Journal
ISSN: 1463-5771
Article publication date: 25 June 2019
Issue publication date: 31 July 2019
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically validate items on social isolation. The comprehensive literature review of existing studies on the measures of social isolation, loneliness and the related construct was conducted. The paper seeks to conceptualize, validate and present items to measure social isolation.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on theoretical and empirical investigation of the measures of social isolation, loneliness and related constructs such as social others, social loneliness and feeling of sociability. The items were generated through theoretical exploration of previous literature and later modified. The author examined the items through exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and further checked for external criterion validity. Data collected from 128 individuals, in India, were examined to design and validate the scale.
Findings
The finding of the paper is a ten-item social isolation scale. Using structural equation modeling, we have found extraversion and well-being significantly associated with final items in the present study, confirming the external quality of the scale.
Practical implications
Organizations may benefit by close examination of the presence of social isolation in employees along with providing support and assistance to employees so as to reduce negative consequences of social isolation and can address the well-being of the employee.
Originality/value
There is a dearth of developed and validated measures of social isolation in the literature. The study reveals the conceptualization and empirical validation of measures of social isolation in the Indian context so that researchers can move forward to develop theories on social isolation.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Dr Vijay Laxmi Singh for her valuable suggestions in this research work.
Citation
Ranjan, S. and Yadav, R.S. (2019), "Social isolation: development and validation of measures", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 26 No. 6, pp. 1905-1920. https://doi.org/10.1108/BIJ-11-2018-0371
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited