Development and Validation of an Estrangement Scale for Young Adults

Estrangement is naturally a progression of feelings that may shift between different parts of an experience. The current study aims to develop and validate the estrangement scale for young adults aged 18 to 25 years in order to provide significance for the nonmonotonic effects of estrangement. Initially, 45 items were generated utilizing the inductive and deductive item-generating approaches. In phase I, generation of items, expert validation and a pilot study were carried out; consequently, the number of items was reduced to 35. In phase II, the scale was administered to a sample of 300 university students for psychometric analysis. The exploratory factor analysis revealed a 5-factor solution with 27 items labeled as culture estrangement, social estrangement, self-estrangement, emotional estrangement, and cognitive estrangement. The results suggested a satisfactory alpha coefficient (.83) and significant concurrent validity (p <.01) with the Measure of Alienation. Thus, findings suggest that ES is proven to be a reliable and valid measure. The study’s implication indicated that the Estrangement Scale could be helpful in assessing the estranged feelings of young adults.