Psychometric properties of the variants of the Chinese UCLA Loneliness Scales and their associations with mental health in adolescents.

Loneliness is a pervasive and distressing emotional experience that affects individuals of all ages and can have significant consequences for both physical and mental health. The UCLA Loneliness Scale (UCLA-LS) is widely used to assess the subjective feelings of loneliness, but concerns have been raised about its structure and applicability in diverse cultural contexts. This study analysed the reliability and validity of the five Chinese versions of the UCLA-LS in a representative sample of 2,643 adolescents and young adults with Chinese as their first language in Hong Kong.

Assessing anxiety among adolescents in Hong Kong: psychometric properties and validity of the Generalised Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) in an epidemiological community sample.

Background: The development of a valid and simple-to-use self-administered tool in Asian adolescents for clinical screening and intervention remains limited. The present study assessed the psychometric characteristics and validity of the Generalised Anxiety Disorder Scale-7 (GAD-7) among adolescents in Hong Kong.

Methods: Epidemiological data from 3,261 Hong Kong adolescents aged 15 - 24 years were analysed for the construct validity, criterion validity, concurrent validity, and Rasch Model.