Connectedness (General Social)

What it measures

An eight-item scale measuring an individual's general sense of interpersonal closeness and belonging to the broader social world. All items are reverse-keyed, assessing the degree to which a person feels disconnected, distant, and excluded from social groups and society at large. High scores (after reverse scoring) reflect a strong sense of social belonging, while low scores indicate feelings of social isolation. Grounded in counselling psychology and belongingness theory, the scale has been applied in consumer research to examine how social disconnection motivates compensatory product preferences and interpersonal influence.

Representative items

• I feel disconnected from the world around me.
• I feel so distant from people.
• I don't feel I participate with anyone or any group.

Citation

Lee, Richard M. and Steven B. Robbins (1995). Measuring belongingness: The social connectedness and the social assurance scales. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 42(2), 232–241.