“Feeling unseen”: Generation and psychometric validation of a scale assessing sense of absence

BackgroundOnline addictive behaviors are common among adolescents and may reflect efforts to cope with inner emptiness, loneliness, or emotional pain. These behaviors suggest a deeper form of emotional disconnection that existing constructs do not fully capture. To address this gap, the present study developed the Sense of Absence Scale (SoAS), a measure designed to assess adolescents' experiences of inner void, relational invisibility, and reduced engagement in daily life.MethodParticipants included 1,555 non-clinical adolescents aged 14–18 years. Psychometric analyses included Exploratory Graph Analysis (EGA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and Item Response Theory (IRT). Additionally, we examined correlations between the SoAS and several external self-report measures assessing loneliness, hope, suicidal ideation, and online addictive behaviors to consider convergent and nomological validity.ResultsEGA indicated a stable item structure, which was confirmed by the CFA (χ2(77) = 588.35, p < .01, CFI = .96, TLI = .95, RMSEA = .050). IRT analyses showed strong discrimination and high reliability (α ≈ .97). The seven point response format provided the best fit. Convergent validity was high within SoAS items and moderately strong with emptiness. Higher SoAS scores were strongly related to emptiness and mental pain, moderately associated with suicidal ideation, loneliness, and online addictive behaviors, and negatively related to hope and self-compassion.ConclusionsThe SoAS has psychometric support among a general population of adolescents. Future studies should examine its functioning in clinical populations and its potential in intervention development.