The Personal Sociability and Connections Scale (PeSCS): Development and initial assessment at a primary care facility

Purpose: An individual's lack of social connections and social isolation is often associated with feelings of loneliness which is regarded as having a negative effect on health. This paper describes the development and assessment of a 10 item 'Personal Sociability and Connections Scale' (PeSCS) to measure individual's disposition and accompanying skills to seek out companionship and engage in interpersonal relations. Methods: The study was conducted at a rural primary care unit in Northern Greece. A total of 199 attenders were recruited over a 6-week period in 2020 and questionnaires completed. This informed the 10-items PeSCS that comprises Social, Behavioral, and Emotional components focusing on the expression of social comfort, willingness to share experiences, stories and concepts, and feelings of similarity at first contact. Reliability of the PeSC scale was assessed and the relationship with scale scores examined as an indicator of convergent validity. A multivariate linear regression analysis was performed to examine the relationship of PeSC scale score with the characteristics of participants. Results: Assessment of reliability of PeSC scale produced a Cronbach's alpha of 0.809. The relationship between components and the total PeSCS scores identified significant correlations (p < .001). At a multivariate level, male gender was the sample characteristic with a significant association with scale levels (p < .05) and higher annual income with Social component (p < .05). Otherwise the distribution of sociability dispositions was similar across population groups. Conclusion: The 10-item PeSC scale forms a simple and quick to complete measure whose overall reliability was rated as 'meritorious'. The PeSC instrument may be a useful tool for assessing the causes and appropriate responses to the negative health effects of loneliness and social isolation.