Social Connection Measurement Tools Inventory

Designing & Evaluating Interventions for Impact

In partnership with the Samuel Centre for Social Connectedness

The Inventory

Are you interested in measuring social connection, social isolation, or loneliness in your work? Whether it is to evaluate the impact of your interventions or screen patients, there are a wide range of tools available to measure these concepts. Check out our Social Connection Measurement Tools Inventory below for information on 55+ measures, including target demographics, methods of measurement, research on psychometric properties, and more!

Using the Inventory

There are three main functionalities you can use to narrow down your search for tools in the inventory: filter, group, and sort. Read about the functionalities below.

Filter

Group

Sort

Area(s) of Measurement
Component(s) of Social Connection
Method of Measurement
Intended Administrator(s)
Intended Subject(s)
Target Demographic(s)
Modality of Tool
Research on Psychometric Properties
Endorsement(s) or Recommendation(s)
Tool Guide(s)

Read the Definitions

Provide Feedback

Do you know of a tool to measure social connection, social isolation, or loneliness that is not currently in this inventory? Have you created a new tool and want to share it with the field? Are there any data gaps that you can fill in or edits you would recommend making to the tools included? Please fill out the form below to help make the inventory more accurate and comprehensive. Your response will be reviewed and approved by our team.

Share Your Feedback

Measuring Social Connection: The State of Affairs and the Path Forward

In Summer 2023, the Foundation for Social Connection partnered with the Samuel Centre for Social Connectedness to create a fellowship project dedicated to assessing the landscape of social connection measurement tools. Through using key terms to identify tools, compiling them in Airtable, and categorizing them based on various characteristics, 2023 Social Connectedness Fellow Prachir Pasricha created an inventory that can be used by practitioners, researchers, and other groups looking to measure social isolation, loneliness, and social connection.

This research was complemented by engaging with practitioners and researchers – helping paint a picture of common measurement challenges faced by the various stakeholders that use these tools. These include:

Capturing the multidimensionality of social relationships, recognizing that they are made up of distinct components, each important in their own way;
Underserved populations, whose lived experiences are underrepresented in both the authors and subjects of studies involving measurement tools;
Standardization vs. contextualization, demonstrating the tradeoff between being able to compare data and capturing variations in lived experience;
Comprehensiveness vs. practicality, highlighting the tension between deeply understanding a person’s lived experience and the resources available to do so;
Consistency, given related concepts and overlapping definitions in the field;
Psychometric properties, which have not been tested enough, or tested among different communities;
Capturing subjectivity, which speaks to the inherently qualitative and deeply personal experience of a feeling like loneliness;
Outdated tools, which may not adequately capture how the ways in which we connect with each other have changed over time, and
Correlation vs. causality, underscoring the need to untangle the impact of an intervention from the various factors that can impact social connectedness.

To read the full report, including our recommendations and additional resources to address these challenges, click the button below.

Read the Full Report

Share the Inventory

Want to share the inventory? Fill out the form below to access our toolkit for embedding the inventory on your website and posting to your networks.

Check Out the Toolkit Here