THE RELATIONSHIP OF RELATIONSHIP DEFICIT ANXIETY, RELATIONSHIP DEFICIT, SELECTED ISOLATION VARIABLES, AND LONELINESS AS REPORTED BY ADOLESCENTS.
Contributors: University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Published: 1983
Number of pages: 187
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purpose of the study was twofold: (a) to develop an instrument for the assessment of adolescent loneliness and (b) to describe the relationship between relationship deficit anxiety, relationship deficit, selected isolation variables, and loneliness as reported by adolescents. The sample consisted of 500 subjects, aged 13 to 19 years, who attended a rural junior and senior high school in southeastern Kentucky. The instruments utilized included the Relationship Deficit Anxiety Scale (RDAS), Relationship Status Scale (RSS), Combined Loneliness Scale (CLS), a Self-Report of Loneliness (SRL) question, a Demographic and Isolation Variables Form, and the State and Trait Anxiety Inventories (Spielberger, Gorsuch, & Lushene, 1970). Alpha coefficients for the RDAS, RSS, CLS, and A-State and A-Trait scales were above .85.

Pearson Product-Moment correlations between the RDAS and A-State (r = .4116, p (LESSTHEQ) .001) and A-Trait (r = .5153, p (LESSTHEQ) .001) scales and between the SRL and CLS (r = .5772, p (LESSTHEQ) .001) demonstrated a degree of validity for the RDAS and CLS. A factor analysis of the RSS resulted in one factor, named Global Relationship Deficit, which accounted for 59% of the total variance. The factor analysis provided a degree of validity for the RSS.

Four of the study's five research hypotheses were supported. Pearson Product-Moment correlation coefficients between the RDAS, RSS, and CLS demonstrated the following: (a) relationship deficit anxiety was related to loneliness (r = .6898, p (LESSTHEQ) .001); (b) relationship deficit was related to loneliness (r = .6253, p (LESSTHEQ) .001); and (c) relationship deficit anxiety was related to relationship deficit (r1□63 □= .2273, p (LESSTHEQ) .002) for adolescents who reported greater loneliness.

Using multiple regression analysis, relationship deficit anxiety and relationship deficit, together, emerged as the best predictor of loneliness. These variables accounted for 59% of the variance in loneliness. Point-biserial and Pearson Product-Moment correlations between selected isolation variables and loneliness yielded no significant correlations. Therefore, the research hypotheses relating isolation variables to loneliness were not supported.

Recommendations included additional research directed at further assessing reliability and validity of the instruments, duplication of the study in a more heterogeneous sample, and exploration of additional isolation variables.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-04, Section: B, page: 1154.

Thesis (D.S.N.)--UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM, 1983.

School code: 0005.