Loneliness, social connectedness, and family income among undergraduate females and males in Taiwan

This study investigated loneliness and its relationships with social connectedness and family income among female and male college students in Taiwan. The Revised UCLA, Loneliness Scale (R-UCLA; Russell, Peplau, & Cutrona, 1980); translated into Chinese and adapted by Wang, 1989, for measuring global, intimate, and social loneliness, and the Social Connectedness Scale (Lee, Draper, & Lee, 2001), were administered to undergraduates. Analysis of the statistical data utilized Pearson’s, product-moment correlations and multiple regression techniques. The findings reveal that college males experienced more loneliness than females in global and social loneliness. Furthermore, social connectedness significantly predicted global, intimate, and social loneliness in both females and males. Family income significantly predicted global and social loneliness in college men only. Implications for future research are discussed.