Abstract
The measurement of the concept of social support is critical to researchers interested in examining the role that support plays in the development and treatment of mental health problems. This article presents a new scale for measuring this concept, the Scales of Perceived Social Support (SPSS), and evaluates some of its important psychometric properties. The scales were found to have good internal consistency and good test-retest reliability. In terms of validity, the scales correlated well with an established support measure. Factor analyses provided corroborating evidence for the scales' two main dimensions, namely support from family and from friends. Further study is required to assess the potential utility of the scales for single case research.
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