Compare methods

	Multidimensional Loneliness Assessment	De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale
Field	Social Gerontology	Social Psychology
Family	Latent structure	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	1996	1985
Originator	Daniel W. Russell (building on Weiss; Russell, Peplau & Cutrona)	Jenny De Jong Gierveld and Fons Kamphuis
Type	Latent-construct framework and measurement of loneliness	Self-report questionnaire
Seminal source	Russell, D. W. (1996). UCLA Loneliness Scale (Version 3): Reliability, validity, and factor structure. Journal of Personality Assessment, 66(1), 20-40.	De Jong Gierveld, J., & Kamphuis, F. (1985). The development of a Rasch-type loneliness scale. Applied Psychological Measurement, 9(4), 289-299.
Aliases	Emotional and Social Loneliness Measurement, Discrepancy Model of Loneliness, Cognitive-Discrepancy Loneliness Assessment, Loneliness Factor-Structure Assessment	DJGLS, De Jong-Gierveld Scale, 11-item Loneliness Scale
Related	4	3
Summary	Multidimensional loneliness assessment treats loneliness not as simple aloneness but as the distressing perceived gap between the social relationships a person wants and the ones they actually have. This cognitive-discrepancy view, rooted in Robert Weiss's distinction between emotional and social loneliness, holds that the absence of an intimate attachment produces a different, qualitatively distinct loneliness from the absence of an engaging social network. Daniel Russell's 1996 psychometric work, developing the third version of the UCLA Loneliness Scale, established the measurement properties, factor structure, reliability, and validity that anchor the broader assessment tradition. The framework matters enormously for gerontology because loneliness in later life is a strong, independent predictor of depression, cognitive decline, and mortality, yet it does not reduce to objective isolation. Measuring it well requires capturing the subjective adequacy of relationships across both intimate and network dimensions. The approach gives researchers reliable, validated instruments and a clear conceptual model of what loneliness is and how it should be scored.	The De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale is one of the most extensively used brief instruments for measuring loneliness in population surveys, clinical research, and gerontological studies. Developed by Jenny De Jong Gierveld and Fons Kamphuis in 1985, the 11-item scale (with a shorter 6-item version available) measures emotional and social dimensions of loneliness, based on the theory that loneliness arises from a discrepancy between desired and actual social relationships. The DJGLS is valued for its brevity, ease of administration, strong psychometric properties, and widespread availability in 30+ languages.